Book 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



of tbe %Mz 

JSp 1Rev» Xoviis Hlbert :BanP?0, D*D» 

Author of 

The Great Sinners of the Bible," " The Great Saints 
of the Bible," " The Healing of Souls," etc. 




1Rew l^orl^ : Baton 8^, /lBain6 
Cincinnati : Jennings 8, pi^c 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 




"Two Copies Received 



CLASS XXc. No 
COPY B. 



Copyright by 
EATON & MAINS 
1903 



MAY 19 1903 



^ Copyright Entry 



Co 

DR. ROBERT McINTYRE 

A PORTRAIT PAINTER 
WHOSE FAME IS IN ALL THE CHURCHES 



THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR 



THE AUTHOR'S LAST WORD 



The Bible is a great portrait gallery. The dif- 
ferent books are rooms through which we range 
and find hanging on the walls the pictures of men 
and women, scenes in palaces, in the desert, from 
the battlefields of long ago. These old portraits 
are interesting to us because they are full of life. 
These men and women have been dead for thou- 
sands of years, but their deeds are still full of vital 
teachings for the people who are on the earth to- 
day. The author has sought in the sermons con- 
tained in this volume to put the portrait before his 
hearers in as modern and graphic a manner as pos- 
sible, while at the same time keeping always in 
sight the divine message meant to rebuke or warn 
or inspire or comfort the listener. Most of these 
sermons have been preached on Sunday evenings 
with special reference to conveying a message that 
might find immediate response, and nearly if not 
quite all of them have been blessed of God in 



6 



THE author's last WORD 



bringing immediate decisions for the Christian life. 
The book is intended as a companion volume to 
The Great Sinners of the Bible and The Great 
Saints of the Bible, and it is sent forth with the 
hope that it may have as generous a reception as 
has been given those books. With a brother's warm 
handshake and a " God bless you " to every one into 
whose hands the book may fall, the author gives it 
over to the public. 

Yery sincerely, 

Lons Albert Banks. 

New York City. 



CONTENTS 



I PAGE 

The Dial of Ahaz 9 

II 

Jabez the Honorable 23 

III 

Seven Great Sinners and Their Confession 34 

IV 

The Man Who Was Always Ready 48 

V 

A King's Conversion 60 

VI 

The Leprosy of Uzziah , 69 

VII 

The Feast of Souls 83 

VIII 

The Vultures which Steal Heaven Out of the Heart. 93 
IX 

The Sleeping Dog in the Sinner's Soul 106 

X 

A Man's Value Multiplied by Conversion 116 

XI 

Strange Bedfellows 130 

XII 

The Food for Heroes .141 

XIII 

A Girl's Song and a King's Javelin 151 

XIV 

Is Life Worth the Candle ? 160 



8 COI^TEITTS 

XV PAGE 

The One Altogether Lovely Personality 171 

XVI 

A Bad Affinity which Spoiled a Bright Man 183 

XVII 

The Story of Five Daggers and Their Victim 193 

XVIII 

An Open-Air Preacher 304 

XIX 

The Star-Gazers 316 - 

XX 

Shaking Off the Vipers , 339 

XXI 

What the Bible Says to Husbands 339 

XXII 

What the Bible Says to Wives 249 

XXIII 

What the Bible Says to Fathers 363 

XXIV 

Is Your God Asleep ? 374 

XXV 

A Story of the Sheepfolds 383 

XXVI 

The People Who Are Moth-Eaten 393 

XXVII 

David and Longfellow on the Meaning of Life. . 304 

XXVIII 

The Easter Experiences of Mary Magdalene 313 

XXIX 

The Easter Earthquake » » 336 

XXX 

The Vision from the Tower i 338 



THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF 
THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE I 

The Dial of Ahaz 

He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by 
which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. — 2 Kings 
XX, 11. 

In modern cities the watch and the clock are in 
great evidence. 'No other age has cared so much 
about marking carefully the passage of time. Some 
man curious in such things has found out that there 
are, according to the best figures, seven hundred 
and ninety-six thousand clocks and watches in use 
by the people of the city of ISTew York alone. It is 
a rare thing to find a mature man or woman with- 
out a watch, and more children carry them now 
than did middle-aged men in their grandfathers' 
time. In addition to these one can scarcely walk a 
block in any modern city without having a great 
public clock with its dial open to his gaze. 

But it was very different in the days connected 



10 THE GREAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

with the record of our text. The dial of Ahaz was 
no doubt the only great public dial in the city, and 
though Ahaz was dead it was still known as "the 
dial of Ahaz.'' Hezekiah had come to be king and 
had fallen ill, and prayer was made for his recov- 
ery. It was given as a sign that God heard and 
answered the prayer that the shadow upon the dial 
of Ahaz, which it is quite likely the king could see 
through his bedroom window, should go backward 
ten degrees. 

Bishop Balgarnie, commenting on this incident, 
remarks that it is the light that makes the shadow. 
Where the light is brightest the shadow will be 
darkest and its outline most clearly defined. One has 
only to stand still a moment under the electric light 
of the street or railway station and compare the 
black, sharply drawn outlines which it throws upon 
the pavement with the fainter images cast upon it 
by the old gas lamps to realize the fact that the 
brighter the light the deeper the shadow. The same 
writer thinks the astounding miracle recorded in 
the text could only have been effected by a light 
brighter than the sun rising on the other side of the 
sun dial of Ahaz. The setting sun had thrown the 
shadow across ten steps, it had gone do^vn ten de- 
grees, when suddenly from the gate or window, 
from the mercy seat behind the veil of the temple, 



THE DIAL OF AHAZ 



11 



there flashed forth the mystic light of divine glory 
that dwelt between the cherubim, turning back the 
shadow of the natural sun and converting for 
Hezekiah the shadow of death into morning, and 
he wonders if this scene did not have something to 
do with some of the outbursts to be found in Isaiah, 
in which God is referred to as a Light; such, for 
instance, as, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And 
again : "The sun shall be no more thy light by day ; 
neither for brightness shall the moon give light 
unto thee : but the Lord shall be unto thee an ever- 
lasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun 
shall no more go dovm; neither shall thy moon 
withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine ever- 
lasting light." 

When we are thinking of the divine light as 
superior to the light of the sun we can but recall 
PauFs wonderful description to King Agrippa of 
his conversion and of the great light that came 
upon him. Years afterward, describing it, he said : 
"At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from 
heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining 
round about me and them which journeyed with 
me." The light which shone upon Paul, brighter 
than the light of the sun, would have reversed all 
shadows that the sun had cast. 



12 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

It is not our purpose to pursue farther any 
speculation concerning the special miracle here 
recorded, but to find in the turning back of the 
shadow on the dial of Aliaz a striking illustration 
of how the light of the glory of God in the face of 
J esus Christ still turns back the shadows from the 
hearts of men and women. 

The blackest shadow which is dispelled by the 
presence and glory of Christ is the shadow of sin. 
That is a shadow which only Christ has ever been 
able to dispel. Henry Drummond once gave an 
address on "The Changed Life," in which he stated 
four ways in which men undertake to drive back 
the shadow of sin. The first is by resolution, by 
force of will power ; but it always fails in the end. 
The second is by concentrating efforts against one 
single sin. A man has one sin that especially 
shames him, alarms him, and he devotes himself 
to getting rid of that ; but while he is doing that 
all other sins are growing rankly in his heart. The 
third way is by copying virtues, one after another ; 
but such work always lacks balance and harmony. 
The fourth way is called the diary method. This 
undertakes to live up to certain rules of conduct; 
but that, too, fails through forgetfulness of the 
rules, and so Drummond came to the conclusion, as 
v/e all must, that the shadow of sin can only be per- 



THE DIAL OF AHAZ 



13 



manently dispelled by coming into contact and 
fellowship with the perfectly good and pure and 
bright life of Jesns Christ. When men saw how 
good and brave Peter and John were they ex- 
plained it by saying, ^'They have been with Jesns." 
Paul was going on the way to Damascus, full of 
egotism and pride, full of anger and hate and mur- 
der, and suddenly he became humble and gentle 
and loving and easy to be entreated, and when 
asked to explain how all this had come about he 
could only tell how at midday the light brighter 
than the sun had shone upon him, and how Jesus, 
whom he had been persecuting, had turned back 
the shadow of his ignorance and sin and given him 
heavenly visions, to which he had been true. 

During the life of Jesus on earth the glory of 
his presence fell upon no sinner so black but he was 
able to lift the shadow. In the Tate Gallery in 
London there is a series of etchings by Rosetti. 
These pictures reveal a rich oriental banqueting 
hall filled with revelers. Costly tapestries hang 
about the windows, elegant furnishings are every- 
where, while in the center is the Magdalene. The 
rich profusion of her golden hair falling upon her 
shoulders like waves of sunshine, her head gar- 
landed with flowers, the grace of form and beauty 
of countenance, constitute the main attraction, 



14 THE GREAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



When her laughter and song have reached their 
climax Christ appears in the doorway and looks 
upon the young woman, as one who understands 
but still can pity and save. The genius of the ai-tist 
reveals the strange excitement which fills her heart. 
She rises from her couch and with eyes big with 
wonder looks into the face of her Saviour, who 
stands before her in kingly majesty and divinely 
pure. Like a hunted deer she looks first toward 
those who would destroy and then to the one who 
would save her. Her appeal for life is not in vain. 
The palace becomes a hovel. She tears the garlands 
from her hair and crushes them beneath her feet. 
She flings the rings away and discards the silken 
garment in her desperate flight from the wrath to 
come. With the dawn of another day she has ex- 
changed the palace for a garret and her silk robes 
for coarse black cloth. With a broken and contrite 
heart she finds her way to the house of Simon, and 
stoops down and kisses the hem of Christ's gar- 
ment, while he freely forgives, and her tears dis- 
solve her woe. The shadow of her sin had been 
lifted. 

Sin throws many shadows so dark that it is be- 
yond the power of any human being to lift them 
from the soul, even though the sin itself were for- 
given. But Jesus Christ not only has power on 



THE DIAL OF AHAZ 



15 



earth to forgive sins, but he so illuminates the at- 
mosphere in which the soul lives, so warms by his 
presence the affections and sympathies of the heart, 
that every shadow of sin is dispersed. A pastor 
tells the story of a little fellow who came early 
under the shadow of evil. He was a poor boy, and 
as the undertaker screwed down the lid of his 
mother's coffin he cried out with a child's breaking 
heart, "I want to see my mother." 

"You can't ! Get out of the way, boy ! Some- 
body take the brat away." 

"Only let me see her a minute, only once more," 
cried the orphan. 

As the boy clung to him in his anguish, the man's 
anger rose, and he quickly and brutally struck the 
boy. 

"When I am a man I will kill you for that," 
shrieked the now frantic and outraged child. 

Years passed by. The boy nurtured his wrong 
and did not forget it. It rankled and festered 
in his bosom and blackened and stained his 
soul. 

At the age of sixteen years he fell under Chris- 
tian influences, and the Spirit of God spoke to him. 
After a long and terrible struggle, of which only 
those who have passed through similar trials can 
know anything, he found that he must forgive if 



16 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

he hoped for God's forgiveness. He gave his heart 
to Godj and "passed from death unto life." 

The undertaker led a life of sin, which finally 
brought him into the company of associates with 
whom he was found in the criminal's dock. 

"Does any one appear as this man's counsel?" 
asked the judge, as he looked around the crowded 
court room. 

There was a moment's silence, when a young 
man, but lately entered at the bar, stepped forward 
and said, "I will undertake his case." 

When the time came for him to present his plea 
it seemed that he was inspired, and the electrified 
bench and jury looked at one another; a murmur 
of admiration ran around the court room. "Who 
was he ?" 

The man was acquitted. "May God reward 
you," he said, as he stepped out of the dock. "I 
can't." 

"I want no thanks," replied the young man, 
"but I would refresh your memory. Twenty years 
ago you struck a heartbroken boy away from his 
mother's cofiin. I was that boy." 

Turning pale, the man asked, "Have you rescued 
me, then, to take my life 

"ITo. ^Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith 
the Lord,' I have saved the life of a man whose 



THE DIAL OF AHAZ 



brutal deed has remained with me for twenty years. 
It embittered my young life and stood between me 
and God; but as he for Christ's sake forgave me, 
so do I for his sake forgive you. If you will but 
accept, he is as ready to forgive you ; if not, go ! 
and remember the tears of a friendless child. God 
bless you." 

If anyone shall read this who has been so 
shadowed by sin and evil that he has breathed an 
atmosphere of hate and anger, let me encourage 
you from our theme to believe that our glorious 
Christ is able to completely dispel and turn away 
that baleful shadow. 

Christ is able to turn back the shadow of sorrow 
and grief. Christ dispels human sorrow, first of 
all, by making us know that we are never alone or 
forgotten in the world. Somebody always cares 
for us, thinks about us, and is interested in us. A 
young girl who was visiting her aunt came to her 
friend the other day and inquired how she should 
abbreviate the phrase "in care of" in addressing 
her letters, and as she went away the young woman 
who had been inquired of reflected on the thought 
of how comforting it is to feel that we are always 
in the care of some kind friend. Jesus dispels the 
shadow of sorrow by assuring us that we may 
always be in the care of God, that by his direction 
2 



18 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

the angels are always watching over us and minis- 
tering to us. ^Vlien we get it deep into our hearts 
that this is true the ministry of every day in na- 
ture becomes tender and loving. Every morning's 
sunrise, every evening's sunset, the changing sea- 
sons as they come and go, all speak to us of the 
fact that we are in the care of our heavenly Father. 
'No sorrow can go very deep, no wound be beyond 
cure, if we keep that teaching of Jesus close to 
heart. 

The nearer we are to Jesus, the brighter his pres- 
ence shines about us, the more complete the victory 
we have over the shadow of sorrow. One night 
when a mother was putting her little girl to bed she 
noticed the child kept close to one side of her pil- 
low. Her mother asked her why she did so. Her 
answer was, ^^I want to leave room for Jesus, be- 
cause he had not where to lay his head.'' There 
are no dark shadows over the pillow when the 
head that wore the crown of thorns rests beside 
our own. 

Some of you are in the black darkness, wander- 
ing aimlessly under the shadow of some great sor- 
row and grief. I thank God that I can point you 
to the door of happiness. The other day in New 
York city a man who has made quite a success re- 
marked to a friend that he made the mistake of his 



THE DIAL OF AHAZ 



19 



life when old Castle Garden was abandoned that 
he did not secure the old oaken doors leading into 
the rotunda. Continuing, he said: "I know one 
man who would give their weight in gold for them, 
just as an heirloom to hand down to his grandchil- 
dren and their successors. He is a man high up in 
public life and one of the great financial powers of 
the country. In his youth he came to this country, 
and entered through the old oaken doors of Castle 
Garden. Hundreds of those who passed through 
those doors to the land of their adoption, where 
they have since found prosperity and happiness, 
would give much to possess them as mementoes." 

There is another door of happiness ; it is the door 
of faith and obedience in Jesus Christ — a door 
that leads out of selfishness into unselfishness, 
where we work in fellowship with Christ to sweeten 
the sorrows of others. There sit about you those 
who have learned by happy experience the truth of 
all I offer you. Christ has dispelled their shadows 
and made their world new. For them the song of 
the poet has come true : 

"Old sorrows that sat at the heart's sealed gate 

Like sentinels grim and sad, 
While out in the night damp, weary and late, 
The King, with a gift divinely great, 

Waited to make me glad: 



20 THE GKEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



"Old fears that hung like a changing cloud 

Over a sunless day ; 
Old burdens that kept the spirit bowed, 
Old wrongs that rankled and clamored loud — 

They have passed like a dream away. 

"In the world without and the world within 

He maketh the old things new ; 
The touch of sorrow, the stain of sin. 
Have fled from the gate where the King came in, 

From the chill night's damp and dew. 

"Anew in the heavens the sweet stars shine. 

On earth new blossoms spring; 
The old life lost in the Life Divine, 
'Thy will be mine, my will is Thine,' 

Is the new song the glad hearts sing." 

Christ can turn back the shadow of death. He 
can dispel all its gloom and its sorrow. Only the 
divine presence can take the fear out of death. 
David sajSj ^^Thoiigh I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for thou 
art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort 
me." Christ dispels the shadow of death by caus- 
ing us to understand that death is as much a part of 
our inheritance as is life. This is only the school- 
time of preparation, and the immortal life lies 
beyond. Death is the angel sent to call us for our 
entrance upon immortality. He is not our enemy, 
he is not our foe, he is our servant. We do not sink 



THE DIAL OF AHAZ 



21 



awaj into nothingness when we take our departure 
from the shores of earth. It is a voyage upon a 
stanch ship, with a true captain and a sure haven. 
My friend who watched an ocean steamer pull out 
from dock in 'New York city to make her trip 
across the Atlantic Ocean was greatly impressed 
with the sight. Nearly one thousand passengers 
were on board, and the breaking hearts and flowing 
tears of many answered to similar expressions of 
sadness shown by friends on the wharf. As the 
mighty ship slowly swung out into the stream a 
cheery-toned bugle sent forth the notes of a happy, 
hopeful air. It was an antidote for the sorrows of 
parting. And my friend said, "May it not be true 
that the angels render like service for the saints 
embarking from the earth Surely it is true that 
it is no rare thing about Christian bedsides for the 
good man or the good woman who is about to set 
sail for heaven and immortality to exclaim : "0, 
what singing ! Don't you hear them — ^the angels ?" 

Let us not fail in the study of our theme to keep 
in sight the great truth that light and not shadow, 
that joy and not sorrow, that courage and not cow- 
ardice, that victory and not defeat is the proper 
keynote for every human life. Sorrow will come, 
but it is not to have the victory. Jesus was known 
as "the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," 



22 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



and yet he was the victor of the ages, and it was 
"for the joy that was set before him" that he en- 
dured the cross and won his triumph. And so it 
is "the joy of the Lord" that is onr strength, and 
we have no right to carry about an atmosphere of 
sadness. If we walk in fellowship with Jesus the 
light of Him whose face was brighter than the sun 
will dispel our shadows and give us peace. 



JABEZ THE H0]f70RABLE 



23 



CHAPTEK II 

Jabez the Hon"oeable 

And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren : and 
his mother called his name Jabez, saying. Because I 
bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God 
of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, 
and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be 
with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that 
it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which 
he requested. — 1 Chron. iv, 9, 10. 

The Bible abounds in brief biographical sketches 
and this story of Jabez is one of the briefest. Many 
writers of modern biography might well model 
after it. It is a rare piece of condensation. There 
is not another word in the whole Bible about Jabez, 
and yet there is here a very comprehensive portrait 
of the man. It is a picture well worth studying. 

Eirst of all, the story of Jabez should comfort 
any young boy or girl who is discouraged with the 
outlook on life because he or she starts so far down 
the ladder and seemingly with so little promise of 
success and triumph. You never can tell by the 
starting point where a man will end. History has 
many stories of men and women who began life 



24 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

with brilliant prospects, and whose careers grew 
gradually darker and less promising, until the 
shadows of disgrace and despair settled down upon 
them. On the other hand, the record is filled with 
the accounts of boys and girls who, like Abraham 
Lincoln and Andrew Jackson and our friend Jabez, 
started at the bottom of the ladder, in the depths 
of poverty and sorrow, and climbed to the top. 
They began in the shadows, but they completed 
their careers in the glory of the sunlight. 

The secret of the triumphant career of Jabez is 
revealed very clearly in this brief biogTaphy. 
Jabez mounted the golden ladder that never fails 
to carry any soul that climbs it into the light — ^the 
ladder of prayer and personal communion with 
God. J abez got his poise and confidence for strug- 
gle by daily prayer. Many people give way to 
worry and fret, which makes it impossible for them 
to do their best, because they fail to lay hold upon 
the strong arm of the heavenly Father. 

A popular medical writer tells the story of a 
lady who went to consult a famous 'Ne^v York phy- 
sician about her health. She was a woman of nerv- 
ous temperament, whose troubles — and she had 
many — ^had worried and excited her to such a pitch 
that the strain threatened her physical strength 
and even her reason. She gave the doctor a list of 



JABEZ THE HONOEABLE 



25 



her symptomS; and answered his questions, only to 
be astonished at his brief prescription at the end : 
'^Madam, what you need is to read your Bible 
more." 

^'But, doctor/' began the bewildered patient. 

'^Go home and read your Bible an hour a day/' 
the great man reiterated, with kindly authority, 
"then come back to me a month from to-day/' And 
he bowed her out without a possibility of further 
protest. 

At first the patient was inclined to be angry. 
Then she reflected that at least the prescription 
Avas not an expensive one. Besides, it certainly 
had been a long time since she had read the Bible 
regularly^ she reflected with a pang of conscience. 
Worldly cares had crowded out prayer and Bible 
study for years, and, though she would have re- 
sented being called an irreligious woman, she had 
undoubtedly become a most careless Christian. She 
went home, and set herself conscientiously to try 
the physician's remedy. 

In one month she went back to his ojSSce. 

"Well," he said, smiling, as he looked into her 
face, "I see you are an obedient patient, and have 
taken my prescription faithfully. Do you feel as 
if you needed any other medicine now ?" 

"N^o, doctor, I don't," she said, honestly. "I feel 



26 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



like a different person ; but how did you know that 
was just what I needed 

Tor answer the famous physician turned to his 
desk. There, worn and marked, lay an open Bible. 
"Madam/' he said, with deep earnestness, "if I 
were to omit my daily readings of this book I 
should lose my greatest source of strength and skill. 
I never go to an operation without reading my 
Bible. I never attend a distressing case without 
finding help in its pages. Your case called not for 
medicine, but for sources of peace and strength out- 
side your own mind, and I showed you my own 
prescription, and I knew it would cure." 

That doctor has gone to his reward, but his pre- 
scription is still here. Jabez lived before the time 
of the Bible^ but he laid hold upon the God of the 
Bible, and grew out of small and sorrowful begin- 
nings into greatness. The Bible, well read, will 
bring God near to us and make prayer seem natural 
to us. 

This prayer of Jabez is a very suggestive one. 
It goes to the very roots of life. He recognizes that 
the greatest danger any man can have is sin, and 
so he earnestly prays to be kept from evil. That 
prayer is the first prayer appropriate to the lips of 
every one of us. The evil is upon eveiy side and 
seeks entrance into our hearts and lives constantly. 



JABEZ THE HON"OEABLE 



27 



There is beginning to be considerable discussion 
in regard to the danger to the health of the people 
from the impure condition of the atmosphere in 
telephone booths. In the course of the day all sorts 
and conditions of people use these public booths. 
One person leaves the odor of some strong perfume, 
another of whisky, a third of bad tobacco, a fourth 
of some disease, and so on, until the atmosphere of 
the stuffy little dens is almost unbearable. It is 
quite probable that there is real ground for these 
complaints, and that disease is often contracted in 
the filthy atmosphere of these booths. However 
that may be, it is certain that in our modern 
life the spiritual danger from a morally im- 
pure atmosphere is constantly threatening. The 
very air is full of contamination. In business 
and social life, in books and papers, the germs 
of sin abound. If we are to run the gauntlet 
of life safely it must be because we have divine 
help. 

A workman who was employed to remedy the 
variations in the great clock over the Grand Cen- 
tral Depot in 'New York gives a curious explana- 
tion of the mystery that puzzled him for a long 
time and gave him a great deal of work. The clock 
was continually wrong in its time. Sometimes it 
was too fast and sometimes too slow. He took it to 



28 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

pieces and examined every part carefully without 
finding the cause. At first he thought some part 
of the mechanism had been magnetized, but a test 
]Droved that it was not so. Every part was perfect, 
and he could not understand why it did not keep 
accurate time. One day, after he had been again 
called in to set it right, though only two weeks be- 
fore he had thoroughly overhauled it and pro- 
nounced it in good order, he stood on the other 
side of the street looking up at it and marveling at 
its vagaries. As he gazed he saw a pigeon alight 
on the minute hand and stand there preening its 
feathers. The spectacle gave him a clew to the 
mystery. He waited awhile, and saw the pigeon 
fly away when the minute hand of the clock was 
rising to a perpendicular position ; but when it had 
passed the hour mark and was descending the 
pigeon again alighted upon it and kept its position 
for several minutes. That explained v/hy the clock 
was sometimes fast and sometimes slow. The 
weight of the pigeon affected it according to the 
position of the hand. So it is that sin hampers 
men and women who really desire to do right. 
Some permitted sin or some neglect of duty de- 
stroys the balance in character and in conduct. 
We need to heed the exhortation, "Let us lay aside 
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset 



JABEZ THE HOITOEABLE 



29 



us, and let us run with patience the race that is set 
before us/' 

There is something very significant in the other 
wing of this prayer of Jabez. ^^Oh that thou 
wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast!" 
is the cry of this earnest, aspiring, and growing 
man. This is the language of a man who means 
to go on. The secret of advancement is in the on- 
looking eye and the lofty purpose. The men who 
grow are men of ideals. A man never jumps far- 
ther than he intends. His feet may not reach the 
spot on which he has set his eyes, but one thing is 
sure, they never will go beyond it. It is like that 
in the building up of character and in the growth 
of personality. jSTo man will grow beyond his ideal. 
Jabez continued to grow because he continued to 
pray for the enlargement of his coast. If he had 
been satisfied to be a little two-by-four kind of a 
man he never would have outgrown those dimen- 
sions. But Jabez was a dreamer. He had come 
when the family was at a low ebb. Even his 
mother took no pride in him, and called him J abez 
as an indication of the discouraging conditions that 
surrounded his birth. But Jabez said: ^^If Al- 
mighty God will help me, and keep me from sin, 
and give me enlarged opportunity, I shall climb 
out of these conditions and do something for my 



30 THE GKEAT POETKAITS OF THE BIBLE 

family and for the world." And so his constant 
prayer to God was that he might grow mentally 
and morally as well as in temporal affairs — ^that 
an ever larger and larger coast line might mark the 
boundary of his horizon. 

There are two rooms which ought to be added to 
many modern houses. When Thoreau visited the 
Xotre Dame Cathedral in Montreal he wrote his 
thought of it, in the course of which he says : "It 
was a great cave in the midst of the city — and what 
were the altars and the tinsel but the sparkling 
stalactites ? — into which you enter in a moment, 
and where the still atmosphere and the somber light 
disposed to serious and profitable thought. 

"Perchance," said Thoreau, "the time will come 
when every house even will have not only its sleep- 
ing rooms, dining room, and talking room or par- 
lor, but its thinking room also, and the architects 
wdll put it in their plans." Manhood and woman- 
hood would be helped to growth and to enlarge- 
ment of coast by the addition of a thinking room 
to every house; and if a man only has one room, 
some part of every day or night it should be turned 
into a thinking room. 

The other room is the one which Jesus speaks of 
when he urges us to enter into the closet and shut 
the door and pray there to the God who sees in 



JABEZ THE HOITOEABLE 



31 



secret and who, if we pray to him in secret, will 
reward ns openly. There can be no enlargement of 
spiritual vision, there can be no growth of divine 
life in the sonl, without secret communion and 
earnest private prayer to God. 

And now, the result of this conduct on the part 
of J abez is interesting. He became the most hon- 
orable man of the family. It was not only that he 
became a popular and famous man, but the words 
indicate that he became known as "Jabez the hon- 
orable." He had honor in himself. He was a man 
of real honor, and that is the most honorable thing 
in the world. 

A little boy was on the scales, and, being very 
anxious to outweigh his playmate, he puffed out his 
cheeks and swelled up like a little frog. But the 
playmate was the wiser boy. "Oho he cried, in 
scorn, "that doesn't do any good; you can only 
weigh what you are He was a wise lad. Many 
men who write "Honorable" before their names do 
not weigh an ounce of honor before their fellow- 
men, and there are others who fool their fellow- 
men, but are light as a feather in the eyes of God. 
To have real honor we must have a manhood or a 
womanhood built on a sure foundation. 

This little biography of Jabez naturally gives us 
the impression that Jabez began his noble career of 



32 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

mental and spiritual growth as a boy. So his great 
character grew in honor year after year. All great 
things must grow like that. 

It took Captain Alexander three years to lay the 
foundation of the stone tower on the famous Minot 
Ledge Eock, just outside Boston harbor. In a 
whole season his men only succeeded in cutting 
four or five little holes in the hard rock. First of 
all, the rock had to be scraped clean of seaweed, 
and to accomplish this the men worked with des- 
perate energy. When a great wave came rolling in 
from the sea the foreman shouted, and they all fell 
on their faces, clinging together, and holding their 
breath until the rock was bare again. All the 
stones are built into one another by a marvelous 
system of dovetailing, so that even if it were tipped 
up it would not fall to pieces, on account of the 
ingenious manner in which one stone is grafted 
into its neighbor below, above, and around it. It 
was a long, hard piece of work to do, but once built 
it defies the storms and laughs in the teeth of the 
wind. 

So Christian character must be built up block 
upon block, day by day, through patient and rever- 
ent work. But when it is builded and stands out 
in the sunlight of God's day it is the strongest and 
noblest and most beautiful structure in the world. 



JABEZ THE HON^OEABLE 



33 



It is to this eternal and unshakable character I in- 
vite you at this time. If you are to build up such 
a personality there is no time to lose. It is folly 
to despair because so much time has been wasted. 
Bring to God what there is left. On the other 
hand, it is infinite folly to presume on your youth 
and say there is time enough yet, when if you give 
your whole life to goodness it is only possible by 
the grace of God to round out God's purpose for 
you, and every year you stay away from a life of 
complete harmony with God you are marring and 
dwarfing the possibilities of your own nature. 

Let this little life story, that comes to us from 
thousands of years ago and yet is so full of life and 
humanness, quicken our thought, arouse us to do 
our duty, and give us a heavenly impulse toward a 
like honorable career ! 
3 



34 THE aEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE III 

Seven Geeat Sinnees ai^d theie Cois-fessioit 
I have sinned. — Luke xv, 18. 

Theee are seven men whose stories are told in 
the Bible who uttered these words. It can but be 
interesting to study the causes which led to their 
utterance and the results which came from them. 

The first man who is recorded in the sacred story 
as having made this public confession is Pharaoh. 
When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh with 
God's demand that he should let the Hebrews go 
forth from bondage he was full of defiance and 
threw down the glove of challenge and contempt 
for God and his messengers. Then came the storm 
of hail and thunder that destroyed the cattle in the 
pastures and left desolation in the forests through- 
out all the land of Egypt, while in Goshen, where 
the Hebrews lived, there was no storm at all. Then 
for the moment the proud heart of Pharaoh was 
cowed. He hated God. He hated Moses more 
than ever. But his forests were broken down and 
his cattle were dead and fear was upon him, and 
so he sent for Moses and Aaron, and when they 



SEVEN GEEAT SIN"NEES 



35 



came he said : ^'1 have sinned this time : the Lord 
is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. En- 
treat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no 
more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let 
you go, and ye shall stay no longer." 

E^ow, in this language of Pharaoh it is easy to 
see that the depths of Pharaoh's conscience are not 
stirred in the least, ^^ote the expression, "I have 
sinned this time." What does it really mean ? In 
the modern language of the day it means, "I have 
put my foot in it for once." Pharaoh felt that he 
had blundered. He had taken the wrong position, 
and he didn't want any more hail, and he wanted 
now to make the best bargain he could with God 
to escape further punishment. The words "I have 
sinned" have no deep significance to this wicked, 
hard-hearted man. Hence we are not surprised 
that Pharaoh did not live up to his promise. As 
soon as the Hebrews began to get ready to go he 
changed his mind and went ahead in his stiff- 
necked, hard-hearted rebellion against God. How 
often we see men to-day acting in the same way. 
A man has trouble in his business, ruin stares him 
in the face, or he fails in some great ambition and 
is laid low in the ignominy of defeat, or sickness 
comes into his house and one very dear to him is 
stricken unto death, and in the midst of his fear or 



36 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

his anguish he exclaims, "I have sinned. I must 
quit it. God is angry with me. It has been a great 
blunder." And for a few days or a few weeks it 
looks like reformation ; but down in the depths of 
the man's conscience it means nothing. There is 
no real loathing of sin, there is no real love for 
goodness, there is no real prayer to God. 

The next man in the list is Balaam. Balaam 
was a prophet of God, and the enemies of the Lord 
offered to buy him up and give him a big price if 
he would bless them instead of Israel. Balaam was 
one of those peculiar creatures who are always 
trying to ride two horses, one of the men who are 
always trying to carry water on both shoulders — a 
man with many good impulses, and who wanted to 
finally wind up as a good man, and yet who in the 
meantime wanted to carry on a profitable business 
with the devil. 

On his way to the camp of the enemy to carry 
out his wicked contract the Lord met him with an 
angel who stood with a drawn sword to warn him 
of his danger. God never lets any man go to hell 
without warning. He sends his angels to block the 
path and make it hard. When Balaam looked into 
the menacing eyes of the angel and saw the glitter- 
ing sword in his hand his heart failed him, and he 
said, "I have sinned; for I knew not that thou 



SEVEiq^ GREAT SmNERS 



37 



stoodest in the way against me : now therefore, if it 
displease thee, I will get me back again." But he 
didn't go back. He went on into one intrigue after 
another until he died on the battlefield, an open 
enemy of God, a warning to all men who try to 
serve both God and mammon. 

My brother, you cannot be a good man and a bad 
man at the same time. It is utterly impossible for 
you to have a conscience void of offense toward God 
and man, a consciousness of a clean heart, and at 
the same time be enjoying the revenues of sin. You 
cannot be God's prophet and at the same time take 
the devil's bribes. And all protestations of con- 
fession of sin while you are still going on doing 
things which you know do not please God amount 
to nothing. Balaam confessed his sin, but there 
was no real repentance about it. He was as dis- 
honest afterward as he was before, and it made no 
real change in his course. The confession of sin 
that brings the cleansing of the heart must go 
deeper than that. 

The next man who made this confession whose 
name is enrolled in Scripture was Achan. It was 
in connection with the fall of Jericho. When 
Jericho was captured and overthrown the Lord had 
commanded against private plunder of silver and 
gold and fine garments, in which Jericho was rich. 



38 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

and all such captured property was to go into the 
treasury of the Lord for the public good. It speaks 
well for the people and for the high average of 
virtue among them that only one man disobeyed 
this law. This man was Achan. Achan's besetting 
sin was covetousness and greed. He had the nose 
of a money-getter. He had the eye for rich and 
costly things. He had the avarice that loves to 
gloat over property though nobody else sees it or 
knows about it. He got a greedy satisfaction out 
of the mere consciousness of having rich and costly 
things. And so when Achan saw among the spoils 
a goodly Babylonish garment, two hundred shekels 
of silver, and a huge wedge of gold, and noted that 
nobody else was looking, he tossed the silver and 
the gold into the garment and rolled it up and car- 
ried it into his tent. Then he pinned the door of 
the tent tight together. As quick as possible he 
dug a hole, put the whole bundle of plunder down 
into it, packed the dirt in tight above it, laid his 
rug across it, and who was the wiser? Ah, how 
many men there are who think they can cheat God 
that way ! There seemed to be no way in the world 
to find out Achan. But they did find him out. 

one told, for no one knew aboiit it. But when 
the time came, and one by one they came before 
Joshua, the telltale soul of the man broke down 



SEVEN GEEAT SU^^TEES 



39 



within him, and tie confessed, ^^I have sinned ! I 
have sinned !" He died for his sin. There is no 
indication that there was any moral change in the 
man. It was remorse that got hold of him. It was 
the haunting of conscience that drove him like a 
whipped cur to confession, but not to seek the for- 
giving mercy of God. 

0 my friends, there are two ways you can deal 
with sin. One is to bring your sins to judgment 
yourself, and confess them honestly at the mercy 
seat, and the other is to wait as Achan did until 
your sin puts a halter around your neck and drags 
you to judgment. 

The fourth confession of this kind recorded in 
God's Word is that of Saul. Saul was a fine young 
fellow, and started out well. But he got proud and 
self-sufficient and refused to obey God. He grieved 
the Spirit of God until at last he quenched it alto- 
gether, and the heavenly light was withdrawn from 
him. In his last conversation with Samuel, God's 
prophet, Samuel said to him: "Hath the Lord as 
great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in 
obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is 
better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 
rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, 
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Be- 
cause thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he 



40 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

hath also rejected thee from being king.'' Then 
Sanl was truly frightened, and in that conversation 
he makes this most remarkable utterance to 
Samnel : '^I have sinned : yet honor me now, I pray 
thee, before the elders of my people." There was 
no real repentance in it. Sanl went on gTowing 
worse and worse all the rest of his life. In his 
very last days he went around into dark caves at 
night, seeking clairvoyants, to try to get some light 
on the future, since he had quenched the Spirit 
of God. 

But still he says, ^^I have sinned : yet honor me." 
Now, before you condemn Saul too harshly, ask 
yourself if you have not sometimes stood in his 
shoes. I am sure I have known men and women 
who were living exactly in Saul's attitude of mind 
at that time. They were frightened at their sins. 
They were alarmed at the fact that they were get- 
ting deeper into evil habits, and they were ready 
to confess their sins, and did actually pray to God 
to honor them while still going on in wicked 
ways. I have known men who were living in actual 
sin, day by day, and consciously so, and who would 
confess it if you asked them, and yet they never 
went to bed at night without asking God's protect- 
ing care over them. Such a confession of sin is 
worse than worthless. It is blasphemous. 



SEVEIT GREAT SINIsTEES 



41 



The next case to which I wish to call your atten- 
tion, though not the next in the regular order of the 
historical story, is that of Judas. J udas, too, was 
a man who loved money. He liked the glitter of it. 
He liked to feel it heavy in his purse. He liked to 
feel the bag pull down and tug in his gown. He 
was the treasurer of that little company of friends 
who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry, 
and it almost threw Judas into convulsions when 
any money was spent for charity or any luxuries 
were provided for the divine Master, because it 
took the money out of the bag which he carried. 
Well, Judas did not know it, but all those three 
years he was letting this love of money grow on him 
he was getting ready for the great sin of betraying 
his Lord, and when the time was ripe he did it. 
He sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and 
with the money in his pocket he dared to kiss him 
into the hands of his enemies. 'Now Judas had 
never had thirty pieces of silver before that did 
not give him pleasure, and he had fondly imagined 
he would get happiness out of these, but he did not. 
Lie could not sleep. They made the bag heavier, 
indeed, but it was a weight that gave him no pleas- 
ure. In his nervousness that bag of money grew 
into a millstone about his neck, dragging him down, 
ever down, into the depths. As time went on it got 



42 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

worse instead of better. It had always been a 
pleasure to him to handle money and to see it, but 
now there was nothing he loathed as he did money. 
He abhorred it; he could not bear to look at it; 
every piece of it seemed to be red with blood. Then 
he had an idea. As a drowning man clutches at a 
straw Judas clutched at it. "I will go and back 
out from that wicked trade. If I can only get rid 
of that money perhaps it will take the curse off the 
rest of my money, and I shall be able to take 
pleasure in the things that I did before." So Judas 
hurried away to the man who had bribed him. He 
had those thirty pieces of silver out in his hand all 
ready. He wasted no time in preliminaries. He 
was dead anxious. He had not slept. He had 
eaten nothing. His face was haggard and his hair 
was disheveled. His eyes were bloodshot. He 
muttered to himself as he walked on the street, so 
that children shrank away as he passed. In before 
the chief priests he came and blurted out, wildly: 
^'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the inno- 
cent blood!" But they sneered at him, and said 
coldly and cruelly, ^'^What is that to us ? See thou 
to that." Poor J udas ! He flung the money down 
on the floor and went away and hanged himself, 
rushing into the presence of his Maker a suicide. 
J udas's confession of sin was shaken out of him by 



SEVEN" GEEAT SIK"I^ERS 



43 



terrible and awful remorse. But there was no real 
repentance ; there was no real yielding of the soul 
to God, no real acceptance of Christ as his Saviour 
that brought pardoning love^ or there would have 
been no case of suicide. 

The next confession, which I passed for the mo- 
ment that we might have the logical order rather 
than the chronological, is that of David. 'Now, 
David had been a good man. His life from his 
childhood had been reverent toward God. In his 
childhood and youth he had lived close to God in 
prayer and in service. God had given him wonder- 
ful manifestations of his love for him, and the 
Spirit of God had dwelt in him. But after David 
came to be king and had great prosperity and large 
wealth and power he went astray. There are many 
men who live clean, pure lives when they are poor 
and struggling, who fall into grievous sin when 
they are prosperous. David was one of these. He 
sinned against God grievously, and the light of his 
heart went out. He was a backslider from God. 
Then it was that l!^athan, as brave a man as ever 
lived, went into the presence of David, and in the 
form of a story pictured another man as doing ex- 
actly what David had done. David's attention was 
aroused. His heart was greatly stirred, and when 
the story was done the king said, "Who is the man 



44 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

that did that vile thing ? He shall die Then 
ITathan stiffened a little through his entire figure. 
His face whitened. His eye burned like living 
fire. His arm lifted over his head, and straight as 
a die his finger came down level with the face of 
David as he exclaimed, ^^Thou art the man !" 

The effect on David was electrical. Like a thun- 
derclap it shook him in one second out of his 
lethargy and his indifference to his sin. Like a 
lightning flash it cleared his blindness with a streak 
of light, and he saw with horror the blackness of 
his guilt. In a moment he remembered God's 
goodness and his own base ingratitude to God. His 
heart broke. The tears coursed down his cheeks. 
There was no anger at ITathan for telling him the 
truth. There was no blustering. There was no 
self-pride. But, with choking utterance, David 
said to I^athan, "I have sinned against the Lord." 
!N"ow, that was real confession of sin. It was 
genuine from the heart's core. It was from his 
soul. David not only loathed his sin, but he turned 
from it and came back to God, and we are not sur- 
prised that ITathan said to him, "The Lord also 
hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die." 

Do I speak to any backsliding souls ? — men and 
women who, like David, were Christian in their 
youth, and in their young manhood or young worn- 



SEVEN GREAT SmNEES 



45 



anhood, but who as life has gone on, have been 
snared by the tempter ? You have been caught in 
the net which the evil one set for your feet. And at 
these blunt plain words about sin the Holy Spirit 
has turned the light on your own sin, and it seems 
terrible to you. You remember God's goodness. 
You remember the loving mercy of Jesus. You 
remember the sweet fellowship you once had with 
Christians. All the sweet peace of those years of 
Christian life comes back to you now, until your 
heart breaks, and you are ready to cry out, with 
David, ^^I have sinned against the Lord!" O, 
brother, sister, if it is in your heart, say it ! Let 
nothing hold it back, for that is the way of salva- 
tion. 

A single other case, and that in the briefest 
words — the young man whom Jesus tells us about, 
who got dissatisfied with home and the restrictions 
of his father's house and went away into a distant 
country. There, so long as his money lasted, he 
had a gay time. There were plenty of people 
ready to flatter him and fawn on him so long as he 
stood the treat, and paid for the dinner, and put up 
the premium for wicked indulgence. But when he 
got to the bottom of his purse he found, as multi- 
tudes of others have found, that the friends that 
are made in sin do not stand by in adversity. And 



46 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

SO, at last, he comes down to shame and want. He 
finds himself a feeder of hogs, with so little to eat 
that he feels it would add to his comfort if he could 
share with the hogs in their food. But one day he 
thinks it all over. Many men would be saved 
sooner if they would only take time to have a good 
think about it. As this poor boy thinks, there 
comes back to him the picture of the old home. He 
begins to compare his father with the men he has 
known since he came away, and the men he has 
found during the years of his extravagance, and 
he is astonished to see how the old father looms up 
like a prince, and all the other men he has known 
are dwarfs beside him. Then he remembers the 
hospitality and the abundance of the old home, and 
he says, "Why, a man had better be a slave to my 
father than to live out in this country in any posi- 
tion ! I will go back and confess my wrongdoing, 
and get on as a servant. Of course I used to be his 
son, and a loved one at that, but my sins put that 
out of the question. But maybe I can get on as a 
servant." So he goes back. And as he comes near 
the old home the father sees him and comes run- 
ning out to meet him. The boy's heart is in his 
throat. As the father runs up he tries to speak, 
but he has no chance. The father falls on his 
ueck and kisses him, and cries over him. Then 



SEVEN" GREAT SmiSTEES 4? 

the boy says, "Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son." That is as far as he 
ever got. There is a lot more he had fixed 
Tip to say, in his proposed effort to get hired as 
a servant, but the father saw the complete re- 
pentance in the coming back of his son, and that 
was enough for him. The father was not out hunt- 
ing servants, his heart was hungry for sons. And 
so he cried, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it 
on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on 
his feet ; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill 
it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son 
was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is 
found." 

O wanderer from God, find in this your example. 
God is that father. You are that prodigal. Come 
home to him now ! 



48 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OP THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE IV 

The Man Who Was Always Eeady 
I am ready. — Romans i, 15. 

Mr. Spurgeon" once said that the Apostle Paul 
might well have taken these three words as the 
motto of his religious life. It would be hard to 
make a motto for such a many-sided man as was 
Paul, and yet these words are certainly a fair indi- 
cation of the man^s character and conduct. It is 
interesting to study some of the points where Paul 
stood like a racer stripped for the course and could 
say with full purpose of heart, ^^I am ready.'' 

The immediate utterance of our text had to do 
with his readiness to go to Pome and preach the 
Gospel there. It might be well to lay the emphasis 
for the benefit of our hearts on Paul's readiness to 
preach the Gospel which he had himself accepted. 
There are many Christians who take their religion 
so lightly that while they are church members and 
call themselves by the name of Christian, they 
never think of preaching their faith in Jesus Christ 
or of proclaiming their love for and confidence in 
him .even to their most intimate acquaintances and 



THE MAN" WHO WAS ALWAYS EEADY 49 

associates. I am convinced that Christianity in our 
time loses more at this point than at any other. If 
jou will read the Acts of the Apostles with this 
thought in mind you will be struck with the fact 
that the most important characteristic of all the 
early Christians was the aggressive quality of the 
lay Christians. They were all preachers. The 
only difference between them was that some were 
missionary preachers who went abroad and spent 
all their time at it, while others continued to fol- 
low their regular business avocations; but every 
one preached. There were no neutral Christians 
— if such a thing were possible. Every Chris- 
tian was a firebrand, a live coal burning a hole 
of religious conviction about him wherever he 
went. 

We need this aggressive attitude of the indi- 
vidual layman to-day. Are you a Christian ? Have 
you accepted Christ as your friend and Saviour? 
Then say so to the people. Hold yourself ready on 
every opportunity to preach the Gospel which has 
come to you. 

Paul ivas ready to face danger, Eome was the 
danger point of the world for Christianity at that 
time. The bloodthirsty I^ero ruled in Eome. To 
preach the Gospel there was to put your head into 
the tiger's mouth. But Paul was ready. He was 
4 



50 THE GEE AT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

the type of man whom difficulties do not hinder. 
Christ had saved his soul. He believed Jesus to be 
the Saviour of the world. Jesus Christ had faced 
difficulty and danger and given his life on the cross 
for him. So Paul says, ''I am not ashamed of the 
Gospel of Christ, and I am ready to go to Rome, 
in the teeth of opposition and persecution, and 
preach the Gospel there." And all the time he was 
in Rome he was ready, until he honeycombed the 
palace of 'Nevo with Christian men and women, 
who in turn were ready to give their lives in testi- 
mony for Jesus Christ. Are we ready to stand for 
Jesus in the face of difficulty ? Are we ready to 
lose money, or friendship, or pleasant associations, 
in order that we may be the more loyal to our 
divine Lord ? Can we truthfully say, as Paul did, 
^^I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" ? Are 
we ready in uncomfortable situations to preach 
J esus ? 

"Not long ago a Christian man was sitting in 
company with other gentlemen, when a rude, 
brutal-looking man came in, full of some grievance 
against the railroad company, and delivered him- 
self of a string of blasphemous oaths. The Chris- 
tian man immediately said to him, ^'Tt causes me 
much discomfort and pain to hear the name of 
Christ s]3oken in that way, and I would be greatly 



THE MAN WHO WAS ALWAYS READY '51 



obliged if you would refrain from doing it in my 
presence.'' 

The man looked at him in perfect astonishment, 
and then said, with an angry swagger, "You attend 
to your own business and I will attend to mine." 

The Christian traveler earnestly but gently re- 
plied, "It is my business to defend the name of 
Christ, my Saviour, and I repeat that I will be 
very much obliged if you will restrain yourself 
from speaking disrespectfully of my best Friend in 
my presence." 

l^othing more was said ; but though they were on 
the train for many hours together it was noticed 
by all the men present that the man who had been 
thus rebuked refrained from using an oath in any 
subsequent conversation. 

Would it not be well for every Christian to be 
ready in the face of discomfort, and even of em- 
barrassing criticisms, to stand openly loyal to Jesus 
Christ, his Saviour ? 

But the readiness of Paul in Christ's service 
comes out more strongly yet in the account which 
is given in the Acts of the Apostles of Paul's visit 
to Cffisarea and of the farewell of the Christians 
there on his departure. They were afraid for him 
to go to Jerusalem, fearing that he would be thrown 
into the prison. But Paul said, "What mean ye to 



52 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

weep and to break mine heart ? For I am ready not 
to be bound only, bnt also to die at Jerusalem for 
the name of the Lord Jesus." Paul showed on 
many other occasions that he was ready to stand 
that greatest test of all, of being hound for Jesus. 
To a man of Paul's temperament we can easily 
understand that this would be one of the hardest 
of all things to bear. Por a man who loves work 
and who is a bundle of electric energy to be held 
in chains, knowing there is so much to be done, 
conscious of the power to do it, and yet restrained 
— ^that is hard indeed. The place of waiting is 
often a harder place than the place of wrestling. 
Possibly some of you who read are in that hard spot 
of waiting. Sickness or misfortune, either of your 
own or of some one associated with you, has bound 
you, and restrained your activity, and you can only 
wait. There is work you have dreamed of doing. 
You have had hopes and anticipations that stirred 
your soul to the depths. And now all your plan- 
ning seems to be crumbling like an air castle while 
you wait, bound by circumstances which you cannot 
control. I am sure this must be God's message for 
you. It is just as tme of you in your place as it 
was of Paul in his that your first and highest duty 
lies in being ready to be bound for Christ's sake. 
Duties never cross one another. If your duty holds 



THE MAN WHO WAS ALWAYS READY 53 



you to a point of inaction, where you can only 
watch and wait, then the highest service which you 
can do for your Lord is to wait patiently and sweet- 
ly and show by your cheerful confidence that you 
do not doubt your Saviour. 

Whittier sings one of his noblest songs especially 
for you who just now are given ^'The Harder Task 
of Standing Still." 

"I wait and watch; before my eyes 
Methinks the night grows thin and gray; 

I wait and watch the eastern skies 

To see the golden spears uprise. 
Beneath the oriflamme of day! 

"Like one whose limbs are bound in trance 
I hear the day sounds swell and grow, 

And see across the twilight glance 

Troop after troop, in swift advance, 
The shining ones with plumes of snow! 

"I know the errand of their feet, 
I know what mighty work is theirs; 

I can but lift up hands unmeet 

The threshing floors of God to beat. 
And speed them with unworthy prayers. 

"I will not dream in vain despair 

The steps of progress wait for me; 
The puny leverage of a hair 
The planet's impulse well may spare, 

A drop of dew the tided sea. 



54 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OP THE BIBLE 



"The loss, if loss there he, is mine, 
And yet not mine if understood; 
For one shall grasp and one resign, 
One drink life's rue, and one its wine. 
And God shall make the balance good. 

"O power to do! O baffled will! 

O prayer and action! ye are one. 
Who may not strive may yet fulfill 
The harder task of standing still, 

And good but wished with God is done!" 



The unselfishness of Paul's spirit and the depth 
of his generous love for humanity is shown in con- 
nection with the expressions of his readiness to 
hear the hurde^is of otliers, even though he was mis- 
understood and his efforts not appreciated. He 
served men because he loved them in the brother- 
hood of Christ. I do not know where you would 
find a nobler utterance than in the closing part of 
his second letter to the Corinthians, when he says : 
^^Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you ; 
and I will not be burdensome to you : for I seek not 
yours, but you. ... I will very gladly spend and 
be spent for you; though the more abundantly I 
love you, the less I be loved.'' 

This readiness of Paul's to bare his shoulders in 
service has made him, after Christ, the chief figure 
of early Christianity. Peter had the start, and the 
great opportunity, and though he came to be a good 



THE MAN WHO WAS ALWAYS EEADY 55 

and great man and a loyal servant for Christ, 
PauFs abounding labors and absolute surrender to 
bear burdens in Jesus's name made him tbe chief 
figure. This spirit of readiness to throw all 
one's soul into service is the secret of all great 
triumphs. 

It is said that several famous men were sitting 
around a dining table in Oxford University, Eng- 
land, a few years ago, and fell into a discussion, 
which lasted far into the night, upon the question, 
^What is necessary to the production of a great 
work of art, or a great book, or a great poem, or 
any great thing At last they agreed that there 
were in all cases three prime elements of power — 
abnegation, intoxication, and concentration: ab- 
negation, the power of cutting one's self off from 
everything that weakens or separates from the 
chosen task, and the sinking of one's preference in 
a full surrender to the work in hand ; then, intoxi- 
cation, in the good sense of the word — ^that is, ex- 
hilaration or enthusiasm, a sort of divine readi- 
ness; and then, concentration, or the withdrawal 
of the mind from all that dissipates its energies, 
so that it may be focused on one thing, until it is 
finished, forever. 

The great souls whose work has won them the 
name of genius have shown these characteristics. 



56 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

They tell us that Michael Angelo would seize his 
mallet and fly at a block of marble like an insane 
giant until he had liberated from it his conception 
of a David or a Moses. A divine readiness for his 
work possessed him. The work of Paul was like 
that. His readiness was not that of a man sitting 
in his place and waiting, half wishing the oppor- 
tunity would not come, but of a man who watched 
with enthusiasm for the opportunity to serve 
others. And that holy joy which filled Paul's 
mind and heart and made life always a sweet and 
beautiful thing for him, so that happy contentment 
possessed him in all conditions and circumstanc-es, 
was only the reward which God gives ever to un- 
selfish souls who are ready to serve others. 

One evening last summer the Hudson River 
Yacht Club was holding a reception. There was a 
large float moored outside the house, and during 
the festivities a number of children went upon it 
to play. They had not been there long when the 
guests heard them screaming in terror that a boy 
was drowning. A little six-year-old had slipped 
off the float into the deep water. In an instant the 
commodore of the club, who happened to be stand- 
ing on the balcony, leaped into the water, without 
waiting even to throw off his coat or shoes. He 
caught the child as he rose to the surface, and was 



THE MAIT WHO WAS ALWAYS EEADY 57 

amazed beyond utterance to see that it was his own 
son. He was so overcome that he could scarcely 
move, but soon recovered and swam with him to 
the bank, where eager hands relieved him of his 
burden. The boy was unconscious, but was soon 
restored. You may imagine the father's thankful- 
ness, for when he plunged into the river he did not 
know that his own boy was in danger, but in being 
ready to save others he saved his own heart and 
home from being torn with agony. 

Paul was ready to die. He was not only not 
afraid to die and willing to endure it when the 
time came, but with a quick and buoyant step and 
with a happy heart and face he went forth to the 
block from whence he was to take his departure. 
There is nothing more splendid as an utterance of 
human faith and courage than that oft-quoted 
paragraph which the old hero writes in his letter 
to his young friend Timothy : "For I am now ready 
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at 
that day: and not to me only, but unto all them 
also that love his appearing." Death has no ter- 
rors for a man like that. He has done his duty 



68 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBEE 

in life, and death to him is only a reward. He is 
not dragged like a prisoner to a dungeon, he is 
rather like the soldier who has been at war in a 
foreign land, where he has carried the flag of his 
country to victory, and who is going home to re- 
ceive honor and appreciation. He cares not for the 
hardships and the trials of the campaign, since vic- 
tory has been won, and he is going home to wear 
his laurels. So Paul is going home to meet Christ, 
his Saviour, and receive from his lips the applause 
which is dearest to his heart. 

'NoWy if we want to find the secret of all this 
glorious career of Paul, we must go back to that 
day on the road to Damascus when Christ called 
Paul for the first time — ^when out of the very sky 
the voice sounded, ^^Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks." It was Paul's readiness then that was the 
source of all his after success. If in the face of 
that knowledge that Jesus was the one divine Lord 
and Saviour, and that in him alone is salvation, 
Paul had gone on stubbornly and indifferently, 
refusing to turn about and change his conduct, his 
life would have gone out in darkness as Saul, the 
stubborn and the wicked, and the name of Paul 
would have been unknown to us. But, hearing the 
call of Christ and seeing his sin, Paul was ready to 



THE MAIT WHO WAS ALWAYS READY 69 

repent, ready to confess his sins, ready to be led 
to the house of prayer, ready to cry out to J esus, 
^^Lord, what wilt thou have me to do 

Some one, no doubt, at this moment stands at 
that very point. Even as you read Christ has 
called you, the Holy Spirit has shown you your 
sins. You feel that Christ is the Saviour of men 
and that he may be your Saviour. Will you follow 
Paul's example ? The light is shining into your 
conscience. Christ is asking for admission into 
your life. Yield to him now ! 



60 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER V 

A KiNG^s Conversion 

And when he was in aflaiction, he besought the Lord 
his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of 
his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was entreated 
of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him 
again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh 
knew that the Lord he was God. — 2 Chron. xxxiii, 12, 13. 

There is a saying among the Arabs that all sun- 
shine makes the desert. It is a common thing for 
men to long for exemption from affliction and sor- 
row, imagining that that would be the chief good. 
But great and good characters have never been de- 
veloped yet out of an atmosphere that was wholly 
sunshine. Affliction is often the only method by 
which God can save a man's soul. Many a man 
who has run riot in presumptuous sins during the 
days of his health and prosperity has found in 
times of affliction his need for God and spiritual 
things which he had not before appreciated. Many 
have not known the deep pangs of spiritual thirst 
until the earthly waters were beyond their reach. 
They do not feel their need of God so long as man 
is kind to them and they have abundance of this 
world's comfort. 



A KIITG^S COl^VEESION 



61 



Mr. Spurgeon, speaking of this need of God — 
or, rather, consciousness of need — which is de- 
scribed in the Scriptures as a thirst, says thirst is 
nothing actual or substantive ; it is a lack, a want, 
crying out of its emptiness. It is the absence of 
the necessary. Thirst is a painful need. Thirst 
is an emptiness. It is the missing of that which is 
essential to life. The need naturally begets a pain. 
When our system needs drink a merciful Provi- 
dence creates a pang, so that we are driven to take 
notice that a requisite of life must be immediately 
supplied. Thirst rings the alarm bell and the mind 
and body set to work to supply the urgent demand. 
It were a dreadful thing if the system needed 
water and yet did not thirst; for we might be 
fatally injured before we knew that any harm was 
happening to us. The pain of thirst is a salutary 
warning that something very important is wanted. 
And, so if you are suffering from fear or despond- 
ency; if you are enduring heaviness of heart and 
disquietude of spirit ; if you have a longing, a sigh- 
ing, a pining after something better and holier, 
then you are spiritually thirsty. And that thirst 
is the call of God to come to him through Jesus 
Christ for the satisfaction and peace of soul which 
he alone can give. 

Manasseh began to reign as king when he was 



62 THE GEEAT POETKAITS OF THE BIBLE 

only twelve years old, and he was a king for fifty- 
five years. In the days of his youth and power he 
was proud and sinful. He was the son of one of 
the noblest of men. So good a man was Hezekiah 
that he was known throughout the world as "the 
good Hezekiah. But many a son who has had a 
good father has forgotten his father's God when he 
has gone forth into life for himself. Sin never 
looks so black and terrible as when it is committed 
by a man or a woman who has been reared in a 
praying family, and who has had the teaching and 
the influence of sincere, godly parents. There was 
no excuse for Manasseh, for his childhood had been 
surrounded by the best of influences ; but he came 
early to power, and that is a bad thing. He was 
not well seasoned. The nations about him were 
wicked, and he fell in with their idolatries and 
built altars to strange gods. He went off after 
spiritualism, and sought out clairvoyants and 
witches and wizards and that ilk. If he had de- 
voted as much time to true religion as he did to all 
these experiments and follies he would have been a 
great blessing to his people ; but as it was his in- 
fluence was very demoralizing. The nation began 
to run down in moral fiber. They lost their pres- 
tige and their power and became a prey to the very 
nations whose false religions had already under- 



A XmG^S CONVEESION 



63 



mined the source of their strength. Do not imagine 
that they had come to this place vmwarned. The 
historian says, "The Lord spake to Manasseh, and 
to his people : but they would not hearken." Joseph 
Parker, commenting on this warning, says these 
are what we call remonstrances. Sometimes tlie 
expostulation is addressed to the heart in a sweet 
tone; it comes through the ministry of father, 
mother, pastor, or friend ; sometimes it is lowered 
to a whisper; then it becomes piercing as a cry, 
then there comes the sharper warning that leaves 
the sting of pain and remorse behind it. It is 
God's Spirit striving with a man's conscience. It 
is a strange thing that God can call and a man 
refuse to hearken. It is possible to shut all of the 
sunshine out of your house until it is as dark at 
high noon as at midnight ; and so it is possible to 
shut your ears and harden your conscience against 
the warnings of God ; but God help the man who 
does it ! Sorrow and affliction and distress are sure 
to follow. 

When Manasseh would not hear the warning of 
God the king of Assyria came down upon him with 
a large army. The record says, "Wherefore the 
Lord brought upon them the captains of the host 
of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among 
the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried 



64 THE GBEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

him to Babylon." How has the mighty king fallen 
to be treated like that! Do you know what that 
little phrase *^among the thoms" means i It means 
that the king of Assyria took Manasseh with hooks 
— put one hook through his nostril and another 
hook through his lij) — and thus led him to Baby- 
lon. I have seen a hog dragged to the slaughter 
tub in the same way. So ITanasseh the king was 
dragged to his dungeon. The man who had been 
too proud to humble himseK before God now walks 
through the dusty street with his arms tied down 
to his side, and with hooks in his nose and his 
upper lip, led whithersoever his cruel captor 
pleases. Sin is a captor just like that. Have you 
never seen a man with the fetters of sin on him ? — 
a man trying to break away from some vicious 
habit that has enslaved him, and yet is held help- 
less in his chains of bondage ? How sin does lead 
men around by the nose and the lip! Some, I 
doubt not, who read this are painfully conscious 
that Satan has a hook through your lijD and leads 
you captive to commit the sin that you are ashamed 
of and that you know is drawing you to ruin. 
Every drunkard is a sinner with a hook through 
his lip, made to parade his shame from day to day ; 
and many another sinner whose sin is more hidden 
is nevertheless the devil's captive and likely to be 



A KllS'a^S CONVEESION- 



65 



paraded as such before all tlie world at any time. 
And thongh a man might succeed in hiding it here 
even until the last, there is coming a time when 
every unf orgiven sin will be known. It is far more 
terrible to have our sins drag us to the judgment 
and condemn us when it is too late to seek pardon 
than it is for us to denounce them now and secure 
our release. 

We can well imagine the awful misery and 
agony of Manasseh. He had been a great king. 
He had been treated with adoration and deference. 
And now to be led around like a wild beast must 
have been terrible. 'No man knows what will hap- 
pen to him when he gives way to sin. It is the 
most dangerous thing in the universe. A strange 
thing happened in JSTew Jersey some time ago. A 
railroad station was broken into and considerable 
property stolen from the freight office. Among the 
things carried off was a box of dynamite cartridges. 
The thieves evidently thought it contained valu- 
ables. They were seen driving away in a wagon, 
but it was not then known that they had been en- 
gaged in a robbery. When they had reached a 
lonely part of the road they stopped to rearrange 
the load on the wagon. Suddenly there was a ter- 
rific explosion, which was heard for many miles 
around. People who were awakened by the noise 
5 



66 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

and shock, looking from their windows, saw the 
wagon being driven at headlong speed. It was in 
a badly shattered condition and was covered with 
blood. In it were men who were almost torn to 
pieces. Some were dead and others were dying. 
'Not often does retribution come so promptly and 
so terribly, bnt that incident suggests the ex- 
plosive quality of sin. The sinner is always 
walking over a powder mine; he is always tread- 
ing on dynamite; he is never sure when his sin 
will find him out and its punishment be brought 
home. 

Manasseh had been accustomed to live in a pal- 
ace and sleep on the softest down, in an atmosphere 
perfumed with rare odors; but now he sleeps on 
the stone floor of a dungeon and breathes the fetid 
atmosphere of an underground prison. But that 
bed was more kind to him than the other; for it 
was there that thoughts of repentance came to him. 
In his affliction he thought of the God of his father, 
the God of his childhood and youth, the God of all 
the earth. He humbled himself before God, and 
cried aloud for divine mercy. And God heard 
his prayer. God had warned him and he would 
not hearken, but God hearkens to the cry of his 
children, though they be undeserving. And far 
away in the dungeon, a disgraced and humiliated 



A KI]S'G'*S C0Ii[VEESI01T 



67 



prisoner, Manasseh was a greater man than he was 
in the days of his pride, when he sat on a throne. 
For now he was abasing himself on his knees before 
God, and the God who has power to lift up kings 
and cast tliem down again has power to exalt the 
man who has humbled himself. 

And so God brought Manasseh back again to his 
own land and to his kingdom. But he was a 
changed man. The idols were torn down and 
Manasseh, in the most public manner possible, 
offered thanksgiving to God, who had forgiven his 
sins and had not only brought him back from cap- 
tivity but had given him peace and comfort in his 
own heart. 

A mother who had been away from home for a 
few days at a time on several occasions was accus- 
tomed to bring to each of her children some little 
gift. One day she purposely neglected the gifts. 
The little ones met her in the hall, their faces 
bright with expectation. ^^I did not bring you any 
presents this time," said the mother, ^^because — " 
but she did not get any farther. The little babe of 
all cried out, "We don't care, mamma dear, you is 
the bestest present." So I have no doubt Manasseh 
said to God. Surely the greatest gift that God can 
give is himself, and the richest blessing that any- 
one can receive is the gift of forgiveness through 



68 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Jesus Christ and the conscious presence of God in 
the heart. 

Manasseh had nothing to offer God hut his own 
poor, broken, and disgraced life. His poor, bruised 
heart was all he had to give. And so you may have 
nothing to bring, no merit of your own to plead. 
You can only throw yourself humbly at the mercy 
seat and in Christ's dear name, who died for your 
redemption, ask and receive the forgiveness of your 
sin. Then the peace of God will come and dwell in 
your heart. The false gods will be cast out; the 
enemies that led you captive and bound you in fet- 
ters will be overthrown; you will be a free man. 
But in your freedom your highest joy will be to 
serve God with a loving and grateful heart. 



THE LEPEOSY OF UZZIAH 



69 



CHAPTEE YI 

The Lepeosy of Uzziah 

He was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But 
when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his de- 
struction. — 2 CTiron. xxvi, 15, 16. 

The story of Uzziah reads like a romance. His 
father before him had been a king, and, as kings 
went in those days, a very good one. Uzziah came 
to the throne at an early age. At the end the 
father's life went out in darkness, and the son, 
only sixteen years of age, came to reign in his 
stead. He was a brilliant young man ; he was full 
of vigor and force, and he was remarkably fortu- 
nate in having for a friend a man named Zecha- 
riah, who had understanding in the visions of God. 
We do not know much about Zechariah, or whether 
he was young or old. llTothing more is said con- 
cerning him. He may have been the young man's 
teacher. In any event he had a good influence over 
the young king, and his earnest nature and clear 
spiritual insight made a deep impression on the 
vigorous mind of the prince and caused him to seek 



TO THE GSEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



God and to live for many years a life that was 
pleasing to him. 

Uzziah Avas a versatile man and was interest- 
ing from almost any standpoint. He was a great 
tower bnilder. He built three great towers in Jeru- 
salem and fortified them. He built other towers 
in the desert^ no doubt as fortresses. He was 
famous as a well-digger, a very important matter 
in the far East. He was fond of farming and 
stock raising. He had great herds of cattle both 
in the low countries and in the hills. He encour- 
aged the planting of orchards and vineyards. In- 
deed, he seemed to have great interest in all living 
things. "Czziah was fond of everything that had 
life in it. He was the Theodore Eoosevelt of his 
time. As the years went on, and his seat in the 
saddle as king became more secure, he began to 
enlarge his dominions. He increased his armies 
and invented battle engines — a sort of mde cannon 
— to shoot arrows and great stones. For a long 
time he was very successful, and his name went 
far abroad. The historian says, "He was mar- 
velously helped, till he was strong. But when 
he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his 
destruction." 

How different his case from that of Abraham ! 
God helped Abraham, too, and gave him great pros- 



THE LEPROSY OF UZZIAH 



71 



perity and large wealth, until lie became the richest 
and most powerful man in the East; but he did 
not become wicked and rebellious because he was 
strong. Instead, Abraham held his strength to 
have been given him of God to use for the help of 
others and for the service of God. Lot had treated 
Abraham very meanly, and yet when he heard that 
his nephew was carried away into captivity 
Abraham pursued and risked his own life and the 
lives of all his people to rescue him. Wherever 
Abraham when he built an altar to God, and as 
he became stronger and more powerful his fame 
was spread abroad and he was known as ^^the friend 
of God." Strength and power should always be 
regarded as given to us of God as a stewardship, 
and we should feel that it is an obligation to thanks- 
giving and reverence toward God and helpfulness 
and sympathy to our fellow-men. 

But the great mistake of Uzziah was that when 
he became strong and powerful he became proud 
and rebellious, and thus brought about his own 
ruin. Our text says, ^^When he was strong, his 
heart was lifted up to his destruction." A man 
comes down by going up as often as not. We are 
accustomed to think of it the other way. A man 
loses his property, or his health, or his position, or 
troubles and sorrows come to him, and we think 



72 THE GKEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

that tliese things may cause his discouragement and 
overthrow ; but the fact is that a man is usually in 
more danger of being overthrown and defeated 
morally vrhen he is going up in triumph than when 
he is being disappointed and seemingly overcome. 
[Many a man who has been able to stand adversity 
and maintain his honor has become corrupt and 
iromoral in the flush of success. 

The ruin of Uzziah came about in a very strik- 
ing way. The man's whole life had been dramatic 
and picturesque, and the doom that fell upon him 
was in tragic and awful harmony with the past. 
He became proud and arrogant, so that he deter- 
mined that he would not only be king, but he would 
also usurp the fimctions of the priests and take 
possession of the altar of God. This was in direct 
violation of God's law; but as Uzziah gTew strong 
and proud sin did not seem so terrible to him as in 
his youth. Eor a great king to disobey God did 
not seem to be so awful as for an ordinary man. 
How many there are who excuse themselves in that 
way. Men and women think that there are some 
peculiarly excusing circumstances which suiTound 
them which relieves them from the ordinary obliga- 
tions to keep the law of God. They forget that 
God is no respecter of persons, and that king and 
peasant, society woman and washerwoman, banker 



THE LEPEOSY OF UZZIAH 



73 



and digger in the street, stand on an absolute level 
before the throne of God. 

TJzziah presumed on his fame and his kingly 
personality and dared to go before the altar and 
take upon himself the functions of God's priests. 
If the priests had been corrupt or cowardly they 
would have kept still; but they were brave, true 
men, and when they knew of the desecration of the 
altar by the king they faced him there and with- 
stood him and ordered him out of the sanctuary. 
The king was very angry, and no doubt would have 
destroyed the men who had dared thus to rebuke 
him if the hand of God had not fallen upon him in 
punishment. But even as he raged, with the burn- 
ing censer in his hand, the hand of God fell upon 
him in punishment for his sin. On his face and 
forehead the white curse of leprosy, the most 
dreaded plague of all the East, was revealed, and, 
feeling the doom that had come upon him, he went 
out in sorrow and despair. His day of reigning 
was over. He lived alone in a little house by him- 
self, which was practically a prison. Though he 
lived a while longer, it was the life of a leper with- 
out power and without honor. What sorrowful 
years they must have been, remembering as he 
would the days of his young manhood, when he was 
the proudest and most famous king in the world, 



74 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

when his armies were always victorious and his 
days full of gladness. He realized the truth of 
Tennyson's song : 

"This is truth the poet sings, 
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier 
things." 

It is significant to note that King Uzziah did 
not lose his religion and become a blasphemous 
sinner against God by staying away from the 
church, as is the case with many people, but his 
ruin came upon him with sacred influences about 
him and at God's altar. With the fragrance of the 
censer in his nostrils, and God's priests all about 
him, he committed sin and received his doom. This 
suggests to us a terrible fact — that one may fall 
away from God and lose all spiritual life and be- 
come hard-hearted and rebellious, and yet be living 
all the w^hile within sound of the church bells, may 
even be attending the church and taking part in 
the services while religion and morality are dying 
in the heart. Let us understand that while the 
religious life has naturally fallen into certain rec- 
ognized forms, forms do not make up true religion 
any more than the pipe through which the living 
water runs is competent to slake thirst. It is the 
water and not the pipe that gives life, and the pipe 



THE LEPROSY OF UZZIAH 



is only the channel through which it flows. The 
church and the minister and the religions services 
are the channel through which, if you will, the 
water of life may come to your souls. But you 
may shut your heart against these things, even 
while you hear sermons and hymns and attend 
services, until they convey to you no divine influ- 
ence. The formal religion has in it no saving 
power. If I address any who, like King Uzziah, 
once drank of the water of life and were refreshed 
by it and strengthened by it to do the right, but 
who have grown indifferent and proud until it is 
beginning to be easy to sin against God with pre- 
sumption, let me arouse you to the folly and the 
peril of your sin. The fact that your name is on 
a church record, or that you associate with Chris- 
tian people, or that you are even engaged in church 
work, is of no avail if your heart is getting weaned 
away from God and you are becoming rebellious 
against your heavenly Father. 

Poor old King Uzziah ! His heart was leprous 
before it showed in his face, and so many men are 
weaned away from God and are sinners at heart 
before there is any open sign of it. The power of 
habit, the influence of public sentiment, holds them 
back for a long time ; but at last the sinful heart 
will have its way and some sinful act shows the 



76 THE GREAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

mark of the leper on tlie man's forehead before all 
the world. Mj brother, mj sister, are you con- 
scions of the leprosy of sin in yonr heart ? Down 
in the secret imaginations and purposes of yonr 
sonl are yon sure that your heart is not in harmony 
with God but rebels against him ? Then, I beg of 
you, do not let it remain so, for you are constantly 
under the condemnation of God's law. You have 
deserted him, and some day the punishment of a 
deserter from God must surely come, unless you 
seek and obtain the divine pardon. What folly to 
go on praying to God to give you this blessing and 
that blessing while all the time you are a deserter 
and a rebel against God's love and God's law I 
There is no greater folly than to expect that God 
will give you special mercies while all the time you 
are cherishing secret sins which have taken you 
away from God. The prayer of the sinner is for 
forgiveness. David had the order right when he 
said, "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, . . . 
who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender 
mercies." The loving^kindness and the tender 
mercies follow forgiveness for iniquity. 

Eev. Mark Guy Pearse has recently retold an 
old historical story of great interest. About the 
year 1750 there lived in Hanover a teacher of 
music who struggled to find a living for himself 



THE LEPEOSY OF TJZZIAH 



and his family of ten children. Of these one was 
a lad named William, a sharp, bright boy, clever 
at figures and skillful at music, who when only 
fourteen years of age was able to take his place in 
the royal band. He found it was all very well to 
be a soldier as long as it meant being dressed in a 
smart uniform and helping to make fine music 
which the citizens came out on a summer's evening 
to hear and applaud. But there came a day when 
war was declared by the Trench against the Eng- 
lish, and as George III was also king of Hanover, 
the enemy marched against that country. Then it 
was too much — the whistling bullets, the boom of 
cannon, the killed and wounded to right and left 
of him, the towns on fire, the terrified people, home- 
less and starving ; all this was very different from 
the fine music of the band. At the close of a day's 
battle the poor lad lay almost dead with hunger 
and cold, and spent the night in a ditch. He had 
had fighting enough for a lifetime. So he deserted 
from the army. But as it was unsafe to remain 
in Hanover his friends managed to send him to 
England. 

He was only nineteen years old when he reached 
the town of Bath, and after many discouragements 
obtained a position as organist. Gradually he be- 
came famous as a musician, and in addition to his 



78 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

pupils he conducted concerts and oratorios whicli 
added to his fame. His studies as a musician in 
the theory of music gave him a love of mathe- 
matics, v^hich in turn led to his studying as- 
tronomy. He had no appliances heyond the 
use of a little telescope which he borrowed from 
a friend. 

Telescopes in those days were costly things, far 
beyond the reach of his purse. He was not to be 
daunted, however, but determined to make a tele- 
scope. It was really a tremendous undertaking. 
A metal mirror had to be made — a mixture of cop- 
per and tin which, when combined in certain quan- 
tities, produced a substance so brittle that the least 
degree of haste in preparing it or carelessness in 
dealing with it would shatter it instantly. It 
had then to be ground and polished with such 
precision that the slightest irregularity or flaw 
would render it useless. At length, however, it 
was completed. 

His toil was gloriously rewarded. From ages 
reaching back to the farthest distance the astrono- 
mers had recognized five well-known planets, whose 
very names implied their age and origin — Jupiter, 
Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and Mars. Several cen- 
turies had failed to add to the nimiber. But this 
musician, eagerly watching, found far away, on 



THE LEPEOSY OF UZZIAH 



79 



the very outskirts of our solar system, a star which 
arrested his attention. It seemed to move, and yet 
could it be that he so soon had found what the 
watchers of the ages had failed to discern ? A nother 
planet ! With trembling eagerness he left his duties 
as a musician, night after night, to watch this star 
through his telescope, until the fact was established 
beyond all doubt. Then he ventured to proclaim 
his discovery. The world of science was stirred 
beyond measure. The name of Herschel and the 
story of what he had done filled the papers, both in 
England and on the Continent. Great men began 
to communicate with him until his fame as an as- 
tronomer stood higher than any living man. The 
king sent for him to Windsor. Thither, with his 
faithful sister Caroline, who used to sit recording 
his observations on nights sometimes so cold that 
the pen froze in the ink, Herschel journeyed, tak- 
ing his telescope with him. He was received in 
state and ushered into the royal apartment. 

But one thing he had forgotten. The famous 
musician, the still more famous astronomer, whose 
fame was on all lips, was a deserter from the king's 
army. How could the king receive him? How 
could the king treat with him ? 'No discovery that 
Herschel could make in the heaven above or in the 
earth beneath could undo that fact of desertion or 



80 THE GKEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

remove the penalty that it involved. As the king 
rose to receive the astronomer, before saying a 
word about his discovery, he put into his hand a 
paper. Herschel opened it, wondering, and read 
it. There in the king's own handwriting was his 
pardon as a deserter from the army. Then, but 
not till then, the king could receive him as the 
astronomer. That pardon, written by the king's 
own hand and sealed by the king's own seal, must 
come first and clear the way. Then, but not till 
then, could the king hear the story of his discovery. 
He must be forgiven first, and then the king could 
bestow the marks of royal favor. Then he could 
be appointed astronomer royal, go to live near the 
king's own palace, and come by the king's loving 
favor to be Sir William Herschel. The king was 
only following God's order — first forgiving the 
sin, then crowning the forgiven one with loving- 
kindness and mercies. 

I am sure there are some who read to whom 
this old historical story ought to be as a call from 
God. Like King Uzziah you have wandered away 
from God, your sin has driven you into presump- 
tion against him, and the leprosy which is already 
upon your heart threatens you with final doom and 
punishment. But I come to you with this glorious 
Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I talk to you of the 



THE LEPEOSY OF UZZIAH 81 

pardon in his name, a pardon written in his blood 
and signed by the hand that was nailed to the cross. 
If yon will forsake yonr sins, and with humility 
of heart and penitence of sonl seek this pardon in 
faith in Christ's name, it shall be yours. And with 
that pardon there shall come into your life, here 
and hereafter, all the loving-kindness and mercy 
of your heavenly Father. 
6 



82 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE VII 

The Feast of Souls 

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fat- 
ness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: 
when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on 
thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my 
help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 
— Psalm Ixiii, 5-7. 

I KNOW very well what David had for supper 
the night when he wrote this psalm, and I am the 
only man here who does know unless there is an- 
other, as there probahly is, who has known the joys 
of the hunt and the intoxication of the chase for 
the wild deer on the mountains. Ah, the vigor of 
it, and the gladness of it! — ^the balsam of the fir 
sending forth healing into the air, the tinkling 
music of the little brook that plunges over the 
bowlders and hides itself under the overhanging 
rock, widening in deep pools where the startled 
trout dart out of the light into the darkness as you 
come splashing by. How the heart beats at the 
sight of the antlers on the great buck! How the 
fever gets into the blood as the hunter tries to 
steady his gun and take aim at the splendid target ! 



THE FEAST OF SOULS 



83 



Tlien there is the meeting in the evening around the 
camp fire, the broiled venison steak done to a turn 
from a forked stick held over the fire ; and then for 
dessert the long marrow bones are stuck into the 
coals and hot ashes, and they roast there until they 
crack open, and the hunters fill themselves v^ith the 
delicious marrow. It all sounds very tame here, in 
a city church, with no hunger upon you. But how 
different it is in the moimtain canyon, with the 
night breezes caressing the fragrant branches of 
the trees into plaintive melody, with the boom of 
the night hawk ringing in your ears, with the hun- 
ger of a day's fast and the weariness of twenty 
miles of climbing over the hills and the odor of the 
fragrant venison bones in your nostrils ! 

'Now, this psalm was written by David in the 
wilderness. He was in exile, hiding away from 
Saul, who sought his life. He had with him a band 
of as daring young fellows as ever breathed, and 
they loved David with all their hearts. The three 
young fellows who once risked their lives to bring 
him a gourd full of water from the old well of 
Bethlehem by the gate were only a sample of the 
lot. Daring, heroic, devoted, loving men they were, 
and David was the idol of their hearts. And that 
day on the mountain they had killed deer. I am 
sure of it. You see, they lived from hand to 



84 THE GEEAT POKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

moutli, depending very largely upon what they 
conld kill by their own prowess as hunters. That 
day they had had good luck, and the camp fire had 
been bright and joyous. Honest eyes had looked 
across the blaze into other honest eyes, and tried 
friendship and confidence had added to the happi- 
ness of the evening meal. They had filled them- 
selves with the broiled venison, washed down with 
ale from the spring of cold water that burst out 
from the hillside; and then, as men now crack 
stories sitting over the walnuts and toying with the 
cheese and the after-dinner cofiee, these sturdy 
mountaineers had roasted the marrow bones and 
sucked the delicious delicacy as they talked. 

And now they are all asleep save one. David, 
that marvelous combination of a man, brave as a 
lion, tender as a woman, man of affairs, marvel of 
practical common sense, and yet with it all a 
dreamer and a poet, lies awake looking up at the 
stars, dreaming of the God behind the stars, and 
reflecting that, despite all his hardships and trials, 
God is infinitely good to him, much better than he 
deserves, and that he has the greatest reason for 
thanksgiving and gladness. And as he thinks it 
over he gets up, or perhaps he only turns about 
on his pallet beside the fire to stir up the flame a 
little, so that he can see to write, and on an old 



THE FEAST OF SOULS 



85 



piece of manuscript, a rude thing such as they used 
in those days, David begins to write in Hebrew the 
words that are in his heart. ITaturally the imagery 
of the day that he has passed through comes back 
into his mind as he undertakes to give expression 
to his gratitude. It has been a hot day and they 
were a long time without water, and the intense 
thirst has given him a new appreciation of the 
value of cool, refreshing water ; and so to-night, as 
he longs to know more of God and to have closer 
communion with him, it is out of his heart that he 
writes: ^^O God, thou art my God; early will I 
seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh long- 
eth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no 
water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I 
have seen thee in the sanctuary/' 

Nothing will make a man appreciate his church 
privileges so much as to be shut away for a while 
from their opportunity, as David is now ; and as he 
remembers the rapturous joy he has had sometimes 
in the house of God he thirsts for it. Then he 
recalls God's great goodness to him, and he takes 
the pen and writes on: ^^Because thy loving-kind- 
ness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up 
my hands in thy name." Then he remembers the 
feast of the evening. There lie the marrowbones. 



86 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

some of them, beside the fire, and he seizes upon 
them to carry their spiritual message as he writes 
with confidence; "My soul shall be satisfied as 
with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall 
praise thee with joyful lips: when I remember 
thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the 
night watches.'' 

That word "bed" is plural in Hebrew, and is 
supposed to have been so intended by David. You 
see, hunted as he was from one mountain to an- 
other, from one wild wood to another, David's bed 
was a very movable affair. His bedroom was all 
outdoors. The canopy of his tent was decked with 
stars. Its walls were the forest trees. Often his 
bed was only the bare ground, with the skin of 
some wild animal he had slain to keep him from 
the earth and something like it with which to cover 
himself. And so David had had many a bed that 
gave him reminiscences of and meditation upon 
God's goodness and communion with the Divine 
Heart in the night watches. 

ISTow I want to point out some of the reasons why 
this is the best kind of a dinner ever served. First, 
it was independent of earthly surroundings. It 
did not depend upon the wealth of David, upon the 
number of his followers, nor on his outlook for the 
immediate future. !N'one of these things could 



THE FEAST OF SOULS 



87 



keep David from that delicious feast wliicli he had 
alone with God when all others slept, when the 
world withdrew itself into silence. When there 
were none to see and none to listen, then it was that 
the heavenly visitants came and white-robed angels 
stood about David's couch upon the ground and 
brought to him the marrow and fatness of hope 
and faith and love. Then his soul fed on dainties 
and was made to rejoice until his lips burst forth 
into thanksgiving. 

The delicious character of this feast is also 
evidenced in the fact that it does not enervate, but 
makes strong the soul. After David had rejoiced 
in the life-giving water and the rich marrow of his 
meditation he finished his psalm with these splen- 
did words: "My soul followeth hard after thee: 
thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek 
my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts 
of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they 
shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall 
rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him 
shall glory : but the mouth of them that speak lies 
shall be stopped.'' 

Do you not notice how strong and courageous 
David becomes after that midnight communion with 
God ? The heavenly marrow and fatness have not 
been in vain. He has been like a fox hunted to the 



88 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

earth ; he lias only a little handful of followers hid- 
den in a monntain camp ; yet see how he calls him- 
self ^%ing." How does he get the courage to do it ? 
It is his midnight communion with God that gives 
it to him. He remembers that it was God's prophet 
that had ordained him to be king. He feels again 
the holy oil U]3on his head, and his soul thrills 
through and through with the happy faith that 
God's will cannot be thwarted. Though the trial 
and hardship may endure for a little while, the 
daylight is at hand, and ere long his enemies shall 
be overthro^m and he shall be king indeed. 

My friends, that is the sort of feasting which you 
and I need to make us brave and strong to do the 
will of God and to go forth day by day to that 
service with which God has honored us. A meal 
like this will revive our courage in regard to the 
building up of our own characters and the develop- 
ing within us of those kingly qualities which be- 
long to the sons of God. How often Satan sneers 
at us and seeks to make us believe that the best 
goodness, the truest nobility, the most splendid and 
most heroic sainthood is beyond and out of the 
reach of such people as we are ! O brothers, sis- 
ters, follow David's example, meditate and com- 
mune with God in secret reflection and in quiet 
private prayer, and you shall feast upon the mar- 



THE FEAST OF SOULS 



89 



row and tlie fatness, upon the good things which 
God shall give yon there, nntil yonr eyes shall be 
clear and your courage strong and your heart brave 
to go forth, following hard after God, determined 
to win everything that belongs to you as the chil- 
dren of the Highest. 

This is the best dinner ever served for another 
reason which David had discovered. He says : ^^Be- 
cause thy loving-kindness is better than life, my 
lips shall praise thee.^' What did David mean by 
that ? Surely he must have meant that it was bet- 
ter to be in that wilderness, living from hand to 
mouth, hunted from hill to hill like a wolf, doing 
the will of God, conscious that God's loving-kind- 
ness was about him, than to be the king, owned and 
recognized by everybody, without God's presence 
and love. Better than mere living, better than any 
mere worldly success or honor, was the conscious- 
ness that he was pleasing God. Hid as he was 
from the world, still he was serving God; and 
service is better than display. 

Do you remember that old parable in the book 
of Judges which tells how the trees went forth to 
anoint a king over them; and they said unto the 
olive tree, ^^Reign thou over us." But the olive 
tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, 
wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go 



90 THE GEE AT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

to be promoted over the trees?'' And the trees 
said to the fig tree, ^^Come thou, and reign over 
lis." But the fig tree said unto them, ^^Should I 
forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go 
to be promoted over the trees?" And then they 
chose the vine, but the vine, too, refused to quit 
bearing grapes in order to be king. And it was not 
until they got to the bramble, a contemptible bush 
that had no love for service, that they found one 
willing to forsake service for display and power. 
So the consciousness that we are serving God and 
our fellow-men, and that God is pleased with us, 
and that his loving-kindness is an unseen wall 
around us — ah, that is the sweetest thing in the 
world, the very marrow and fatness of the heavenly 
banquet is in that ! To be able to say in your heart 
with a happy gladness, "God loves me, my life 
pleases him, I am making men happier, I am help- 
ing some to do better, the burden is a little lighter 
for some souls because of me" — ^that is the root of 

We cannot speak of this feast of service and the 
conscious joy of it without remembering how rich 
and blessed was the feast to our divine Lord. You 
remember how they left him one day, tired out, by 
the well, and the disciples went into the town of 
Samaria to get food, and while they were gone the 



THE FEAST OF SOULS 



91 



sinful woman came, and Clirist won her heart away 
from her sins and brought the light of a new life 
to her soul, and when they came back with their 
provisions the Master did not wish anything to eat. 
As they wondered if somebody had given him a 
meal while they were gone, he said to them, "I 
have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is 
to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his 
work.'' 

I press this feast upon you all the more gladly 
because it is within the reach of every one of you. 
Though you be as hard pressed as David, though 
you be as unjustly treated as was he, yet the hard- 
ships and trials and wrongs which you know at the 
present time need not shut you out from one single 
meal of the heavenly food. There is no home so 
poor but God will send his angels there to cater to 
the soul that lifts thought and affection in silent 
meditation and prayer toward his throne. 'No one 
is so weary or tired but that if he will give him- 
self with unreserved affection to ser^^e God and 
to be helpful to his fellow-men God will give 
him the rich marrow on which Jesus fed and was 
satisfied. 

Do I speak to anyone who is passing through 
life without knowing anything of this heavenly 
food, this divine feasting of the soul? I would 



92 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

not stop without inviting you to begin liere and 
now. Clirist himself compares the Gospel, with all 
its offers of forgiveness, its cleansing of the heart, 
and its hope of heaven, to a feast, and in his own 
language and by his authority I now invite any 
soul that is hungry and athirst for heaven's for- 
giveness and love to ^'Come, for all things are now 
ready 



THE VULTUEES WHICH STEAL HEAVEN 93 



CHAPTEK VIII 

The Yultuees which Steal Heaveis" Out of 

THE Heaet 

And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, 
Abram drove them away. — Genesis xv, 11. 

Wheeevee Abraham went, from youth to old 
age, he carried his credentials with him. Wher- 
ever he settled he built an altar to God and made 
his offering thereon. He is a stalwart and vivid 
personality standing out against all the mysterious 
background of the old patriarchal world. The pic- 
ture suggested by our text is very simple and very 
suggestive. It is in a country place, far from 
towns, that Abraham makes his offering unto God. 
But the vultures abound, and his back is scarcely 
turned from the place of worship before these de- 
vouring birds, these scavengers of the air, attracted 
by the carcases of the beasts and birds which he had 
slain, set upon his offering. There was only one 
thing to do, and that Abraham did. He set him- 
self all day long to stand on guard and protect his 
sacrifice. 

This scene is very suggestive. The altar and its 



94 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

offering meant to the patriarch everything that was 
worshipful, reverent, and loving toward God. To 
drive away those foul birds and protect that sacri- 
fice meant to keep alive his reverence, his religious 
earnestness, his fellow^ship w^ith G-od, his close 
association with the heavenly world. It surely 
does no violation to Scripture to allow this scene to 
suggest to us the great truth that none of us can be 
freed while we remain in this world from the neces- 
sity of this watchfulness against the vultures which 
would steal heaven out of our hearts. Unless we 
are on the alert and are awake to the fact that there 
are spiritual enemies we shall soon be bankrupt of 
our richest treasures. A noble life is never had 
except at the price of this watchfulness, and unless 
we are careful we shall be constantly thrusting our- 
selves into situations which will despoil us of our 
Christian character. 

A young backwoodsman who guided me on a 
trout-fishing excursion last summer was pointing 
out a certain lake where he said that the winter 
before he had gone fishing for pickerel through the 
ice, and, w^hile he was catching the pickerel, sud- 
denly the large lake trout began to bite, and in a 
few minutes he caught twenty-five pounds of them. 

I quietly remarked, "Is it not against the law to 
catch trout through the ice ?" 



THE VULTUEES WHICH STEAL HEAVEI^ 95 

He looked at me whimsically, and said, yes ; 
but then, I couldn't stop their biting.'' 

I think there are a good many young people who 
excuse themselves for their sins in much the same 
way. They put themselves into positions where 
they are tempted to indulge in questionable things, 
and then say, ^^O, well, I couldn't have done differ- 
ently, situated as I was." A man goes with drink- 
ing company, knowing that he will be tempted to 
strong drink, and then excuses himself for taking 
wine because of the circumstances in which he is 
placed. You cannot help temptation coming when 
you put yourself in the way of it, but you can keep 
away from the place where you have every reason 
to know that you will be tempted. 

Great cities are especially beset by these scaven- 
gers who will rob us of our better selves unless we 
are alert in watching against them and driving 
them away. Tennyson has described the youth 
who travels toward London and sees the lights of 
the great city flaring in the sky, a beacon of hope 
or of despair, of victory or of failure. As has been 
well said, that magic light may be a will-o'-the-wisp, 
a dancing gleam of beauty and splendor over a fetid 
marsh of corruption and decay. But the fascina- 
tion is always there. Hope and promise are writ- 
ten in larger letters than those that tell of danger 



96 THE GEE AT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

and peril. For joimg men and women there seems 
to be an invincible attraction toward the great city 
— '^^this evolution of tlie ages, this battle ground of 
the energies, this arena where men run, dropping 
sweat and blood, to fall and die or win the victor's 
crown." Everyone knows that in the city the boy 
too often loses his manhood and the innocent girl 
what is more than life to her ; that thousands fester 
and decay morally and physically in the great 
swamps of poverty; that much of the atmosphere 
of the city is tainted with the breath of vile and 
criminal multitudes ; but on they come, like a tide 
on some storm-driven main, filling the city with 
new life every year. And if these young men or 
women keep in the heart the reverence and worship, 
the hope and faith, learned at a Christian family 
fireside, it will be because they are alert and watch- 
ful to drive away the vultures which will flock 
down out of the city sky, ready to steal out of their 
hearts all heavenly aspirations. Let us look at 
some of these scavengers. 

The first vulture that one needs to be warned 
against in the city is a vulture called ambition for 
worldly success. The city is above all a place of 
ambition, and too many make a god out of success. 
They are going to succeed — honestly, if they can, 
but succeed they must. When a man makes up his 



THE VULTURES WHICH STEAL HEAVEJS" 97 

mind to that the devil has a mortgage on him and it 
is only a question of time when he will foreclose it. 
The man who is not willing to fail rather than to 
be dishonest or soil his soul with the grime of sin 
is certain to lose all the heaven out of his heart as 
the days go on. There can be no greater peril, no 
greater certainty of ruin to all high and noble life, 
than to permit yourself to become so absorbed in 
worldly success that it takes all thought and atten- 
tion away from spiritual things. 

A man lay dying in Philadelphia, and his pastor, 
one of the leading ministers of the city, came and 
talked with him as the man shivered on the verge 
of life. The minister said to him, "I have noticed 
you for several years as you sat in your pew, 
and there was a degree of intellectual alert- 
ness in your face, and it seemed to me that you 
had more than most members of the congrega- 
tion appropriated the truths of God as they were 
set forth. 

"Alas !" said the dying man, "you were deceived. 
I took that time not to listen to your sermon, not to 
be impressed by the truth of God. I took it to con- 
sider my worldly business, to work out my plans 
and schemes for the business of the coming week ; 
and now I lie here impoverished, beggared, my 
haggard soul going to meet God face to face, choked 
. 7 



98 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life 
and bringing no fruit to perfection." 

I fear that man was a type of a great many men 
and women who are so absorbed with their stmggle 
for worldly success that it becomes a vulture which 
devours the life of the Spirit and the hope of 
heaven out of the heart. 

Strife is a vulture which often steals the possi- 
bility of heaven out of the heart. Abraham was 
once threatened with trouble in connection with 
his nephew Lot. Trouble grew up between their 
herders. The pasture ground was not large enough 
for their great flocks. But Abraham was deter- 
mined that no unseemly strife should be permitted 
to fret his soul and hinder his perfect communion 
with God. What were a few fat steers or goats 
more or less compared to the peace of his heart, the 
assurance that he had set the right example before 
the world and lived in such a way that men would 
not sneer when they said, "There goes the friend of 
God" ! So Abraham said to Lot that the whole 
world was open to him for choice. Being the elder 
of the two and the more powerful, he had the right 
to the first choice. But Abraham's was a noble 
soul. He would leave no door open for envy or 
jealousy or strife of any sort. So he gave Lot the 
first choice. Lot, had he not had a mean streak in 



THE VTJLTUEES WHICH STEAL HEAVEN 99 

him, would not have accepted it ; but he gobbled it 
up as a hungry pig eats swill. He took the well- 
watered pastures that led toward Sodom and faced 
his camp that way, and a sad choice it was for him. 
Abraham turned his face toward the desert, but he 
went with a smile on his countenance and with in- 
finite peace in his heart. Angels visited him in 
that desert and he found no place so drear but 
there was constantly before his vision "a city 
which hath foundations^ whose builder and maker 
is God." 

It is often true that the lack of peace in a home 
steals heaven out of the hearts of the people who 
dwell there. Sometimes both husband and wife 
lose the heavenly atmosphere for the lack of that 
forbearance and patience which God is so ready to 
bestow upon them and which would insure peace. 
Often it ruins not only the happiness of the father 
and the mother, but it blights the career of children 
as well. Strife in a home is a foretaste of hell, 
while a home full of peace and love is a good begin- 
ning of heaven. 

Many times a business life is carried on in a 
spirit of strife which takes out of it all the possi- 
bilities of highest service. The Christian man who 
is at peace with his employees, or the workingman 
who is at peace with his employer, has a great op- 



100 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

portiinity to illustrate the Christian graces and to 
exercise a divine influence. Strife despoils the 
situation, and in the home and the business as well 
as in social life we need to be watchful and alert 
that the vulture of strife does not steal out of our 
hearts the most precious of gems. 

Doubt and skepticism of the great truths of 
God's Word, permitted to nestle in the heart, will 
steal away the most valuable treasures of the soul. 
But, some one says, "How can I help it ? Doubts 
come without my desire. What shall I do Do 
what J esus says. Do the duty that is next to you. 
Do what you know is right, and his light will fall 
on your path. 

A gentleman was camping in the Maine woods 
one summer. One day he reached the shore of a 
lake, expecting to find a party of friends with 
whom he was to go up the lake to their camp. 
When he reached the appointed place his friends 
were not there. He began to get indignant. Why 
had they gone ? Why couldn't they wait for him ? 
On the shore of the lake he found a canoe with 
paddles. Tacked to a tree was a bit of paper with 
these words, "Take canoe, and follow." He saw 
at once that there was no use for indignation or 
anger, and no use in asking questions. He got into 
the canoe and paddled away after them. When he 



THE VULTUEES WHICH STEAL HEAVElS" 101 



reached the camp he found that his friends had had 
a good reason for going ahead, and as he thought it 
over there came to him the words of Jesus to Peter 
when Peter wanted to know what would come to 
John and the Master said : '^If I will that he tarry 
till I come, what is that to thee ? Follow thou me/' 
So I saj to you that whatever there may be that 
you do not understand in the Bible or in God's 
dealing with you in your own life, one thing is sure, 
it is safe to follow Jesus Christ. Here was the one 
pure, triumphant life. The men who have followed 
him have come out safely. Drive away your 
doubts, as Abraham drove away the vultures, and 
follow Christ. As you follow him, doing the duty 
at hand, sufficient light shall fall on your path to 
lead you home. 

Procrastination is another vulture which steals 
heaven out of the heart. Men put aside the best 
things, like the king before whom Paul stood, until 
"a more convenient season.'' How many things 
we are laying by "until we have time." O my 
friend, do it now ! Some one sings : 

"'When I have time, so many things I'll do 
To make life happier and more fair 
For those whose lives are crowded now with care; 
I'll help to lift them from their low despair — 
When I have time! 



102 THE GBEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

" 'When I have time the friend I love so well 
Shall know no more these weary, tolling days; 
I'll lead her feet in pleasant paths always, 
And cheer her heart with words of sweetest praise — 
When I have time!' 

"When you have time the friend you hold so dear 
May be beyond the reach of all your sweet intent; 
May never know that you so kindly meant 
To fill her life with sweet content — 
When you had time! 

"Now is the time! Ah, friend, no longer wait 
To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer 
To those around, whose lives are now so dear; 
They may not heed you in the coming year — 
Now is the time! " 

Many are putting this confession of Christ as 
their Saviour and obtaining the pardon of their 
sins among the things they will do when they have 
time, as if this were not the greatest question and 
the most urgent that could possibly take up their 
time. "Xow is the accepted time." ^^To-day is the 
day of salvation." Do not let this vulture of pro- 
crastination whom men have always known to be a 
thief steal heaven out of your heart and out of your 
future. 

Self-indulgence is a black vulture and the most 
thieving of evil birds. The best and most brilliant 
of all our jewels attract his fancy. 



THE VULTURES WHICH STEAL HEAVEI^ 103 

A ITew York jeweler not long ago told the story 
of how, many years ago, when he was a salesman 
in Maiden Lane, a diamond worth three thousand 
dollars was missing. All search was vain. On the 
second day after its disappearance the young sales- 
man was in the back shop alone when an uncanny 
^^caw! caw!'' greeted him. He went to the iron- 
barred window, looked out, and on the window sill 
of a tenement house not twenty feet away sat a huge 
crow or raven. An inspiration came to the clerk 
like a flash, and without his hat he rushed around 
the corner into the tenement, inquired to whom the 
raven belonged, and learned that it was the pet of 
the woman with whom he was speaking. 

^^What room does that bird stay in he asked. 

She led the way, and when they entered the 
room the raven was on a dining table, pecking away 
at the contents of a work-basket. To the woman's 
great surprise he seized the basket and turned its 
contents out upon the table. There was the dia- 
mond. The window bars had been far enough 
apart for the bird to enter the shop and the brilliant 
jewel had fascinated its greedy eye. 

The lust for self-indulgence is like that bird. It 
has an eye on the most brilliant and splendid things 
that belong to any man or woman, and unless it is 
driven away and kept out of the heart it will steal 



104 THE GREAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

heaven out of your soul. If you allow lust for im- 
pure things, or guilty love, or self-indulgence of 
any sort to nest in your imagination, so that you 
muse and meditate on things that would make you 
blush with shame if others knew, then you may be 
sure that you are in deadly peril ; and unless you 
drive those foul birds out of your soul and sup- 
plant them with earnest thoughts and pure pur- 
poses they will steal away your honor, they will 
steal away your purity of heart, and you will be 
robbed of the most priceless diamonds which be- 
long to your manhood or your womanhood. 

But, some one will say, ^^I have tried to keep 
guard over my soul, and I have failed." If that is 
so you have failed because you tried in your own 
strength, and that is the wrong way. You may 
have the divine help, and you cannot get along 
without it. 

Dr. Baedeker, an evangelist, who has been mak- 
ing the rounds of the Siberian prisons and preach- 
ing the Gospel to the prisoners, says that in 1891 
he met a nobleman of fine presence and cultured 
manners. He asked him how he came to be there, 
and he replied that it was one act, the work of a 
moment; but he would soon be free. He would 
go and live a new life, and he would take care not 
to return. The good man told him that it would 



THE VULTURES WHICH STEAL HEAVEN 105 

take a stronger power than his own to keep him. 
He urged upon him that another power was neces- 
sary, without which he could have no sure deliver- 
ance from sin. But the nobleman thought he was 
able to keep himself. Six years later Dr. Baedeker 
was again traveling in Siberia, and some hundreds 
of miles from the former place of meeting he found 
this same nobleman, again a prisoner. 

"Why, how is it that you are now here he in- 
quired. "You told me that when you were free you 
would begin to lead a new life. How has this hap- 
pened 

"It was the work of a moment," he said. "I was 
free but I could not walk straight." 

That fallen nobleman had tried in his own 
strength and failed, and so men have always failed 
when they have refused the divine fellowship. I 
offer you the divine help in Jesus Christ. Ask aid 
of him, and he will not turn you away empty. 



106 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE IX 
The SLEEPiNa Dog m the Smi^ER^s Soul 

And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that 
he should do this great thing? — 2 Kings viii, 13. 

It is said tliat MoHammed once came in sight of 
Damascus and, looking on its picture of wondrous 
beauty, with a heavy sigh turned and went away 
and would not enter. When asked his reason he 
said, ^'It is given to man to have but one paradise, 
and I will wait for mine hereafter." In Damascus 
occurred the strange scene pictured by our text. 
Elisha had come to Damascus. He was at the 
height of his glory. He was the most powerful 
man in the kingdom, and men in other kingdoms 
who sought to do evil to Israel feared him more 
than they did kings or generals. 

When the news came to the old king, Ben-hadad, 
in his palace, that Elisha had come to Damascus, it 
aroused him to action. The king was old and sick, 
and he greatly desired to know whether the illness 
that was then on him was to be his last. So he 
turned to his private secretary, Hazael, a young 
man who had served him faithfully for years and 



THE SLEEPING DOG m THE SIWER^'s SOUL 107 

to whom he had intrusted great power, and said 
to him : "Go and see Elisha, the man of God. Take 
him a splendid j)i'esent. Load forty of the biggest 
camels in the royal stables with every good thing 
of Damascus, and go before the prophet and give 
him my compliments, and ask him to send me word 
whether this sickness is imto death or if I shall 
recover my strength again." 

So Hazael .fixed up his presents in the lavish 
oriental style and went on his visit to Elisha. As 
he stood before Elisha he said, ^^Thy son Ben- 
hadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee, saying, 
Shall I recover of this disease ?" 

Elisha replied that he could tell his master that 
there was nothing in his disease that would neces- 
sarily carry him off, but that the Lord had made 
known to him, the prophet, that the king would 
surely die. And then Elisha gazed into the face 
of Hazael with a penetrating scrutiny, as though 
he would read him through and through. The 
young man was embarrassed and dropped his face, 
and when he did so Elisha burst into tears and 
sobbed like a child. 

Hazael was now as astonished as he had been 
abashed a moment ago, and exclaimed, "Why 
weepeth my lord ?" 

As soon as Elisha could compose himself he said 



108 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



that he was weeping because he perceived the hor- 
rid cruelty and the abominable deeds which Hazael 
would do to the people of Israel, and he went on to 
enumerate some of the vilest and most brutal things 
that could be done in the most barbaric age. 

At this Hazael drew back excitedly, and I have 
no doubt but his horror was real as he exclaimed, 
^^Is thy servant a dog, that he should do a thing like 
that 

Then Elisha went on at length to tell him that 
he would be king of the country, and that after he 
had come into power he would grow into this mon- 
ster which the prophet had pictured. 

Elisha's prophecy came true. Hazael went home 
with his head in a whirl. All the dreamed-of ambi- 
tions and lusts that had been lying dormant in the 
man for years suddenly sprang into being. All 
night he plotted and brooded and wondered how he 
might hasten the coming of his absolute rule. To- 
ward morning he hatched his devilish scheme. He 
knew that the old king was weak and that a very 
little thing would quench the faint spark of life 
which still animated him. So he went softly into 
the king's room. He sent the servant away on some 
pretext and took a cloth that had been used to bathe 
the king's brow — perhaps it was lying on his fore- 
head when Hazael went in — and all he had to do 



THE SLEEPING DOG IN THE SINNEE^S SOUL 109 

was to slip it down over his mouth and nostrils. 
The old man^ weak and feeble, could not breathe. 
His hand raised convulsively to take away the ob- 
struction, but the heavy covering on the couch was 
too strong for his weakness. There was a sup- 
pressed moan, a convulsive clutch of the hands, and 
in a few moments all was quiet. The old king was 
dead. Hazael already had the army in his hand. 
He took the empty throne, and he became the very 
monster that Elisha had prophesied. 

'Now, the lesson which I wish to emphasize is 
this: That, all unconsciously, the dogs of cruelty 
and lust and murder had been sleeping in Hazael 
for many years. He was honest, no doubt, when he 
drew back from Elisha and the picture he painted 
and cried, "Is thy servant a dog If Elisha had 
been speaking to him from our standpoint he would 
have said : "Ah, young man, I see the dogs you do 
not perceive. I look down into your heart. I look 
down into the mirror of your soul, and I see that 
in the secret imaginations and ambitions and de- 
sires of your heart it is a dog kennel. The dogs lie 
sleeping, some of them, but the dogs are there. 
During all the years that you have been cherishing 
evil thoughts and unholy ambitions the dogs have 
been growing for just such an hour as this, and I 
see now that the time is at hand when circum- 



110 THE GREAT POKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

stances are going to take a hand and arouse and cut 
the leash of the dogs in the hlthy kennel of jour 
wicked heart. And they shall spring forth until 
you shall lie and murder and do all kinds of deeds 
of revolting wickedness." 

^^ow it would not be worth our while to discuss 
this story if there was anything about it that was 
unique. The story is very old and Hazael has been 
a long time dead. But the lesson which it teaches 
is illustrated every day in this modern life. Men 
still walk and work about us who have in their 
hearts, hidden in the deepest recesses of their souls, 
sleeping dogs of which they are unconscious but 
which threaten all their future. Such a life can 
never be safe until that heart is transformed, until 
it ceases to be a dog kennel and comes to be a temple 
from which incense goes up to God from a gTateful 
spirit. 

When one undertakes to illustrate this thought 
he is only embarrassed by a wealth of incidents. 
In a Western city I formed a friendship a few years 
ago with a very strong and vital man. He is a 
man of great strength and force of character. He 
is one of the kind of men who bring things to pass. 
We were drawn together by certain traits in each 
other that always gave us pleasure in personal fel- 
lowship. My friend was not a Christian. He 



THE SLEEPITTG DOG IN THE SINI7ER''s SOUL 111 

liked to come and hear me preach; he delighted 
to eat dinner with me ; bnt back into the chamber 
of his sonl he rarely let me go at all. I was deeply 
interested in his salvation. For years I prayed for 
him; I often conversed with him; bnt he met me 
with a certain outward barrier of reserve. He 
would not let me into his heart, though on any 
subject except religion he was perfectly frank. He 
was a very successful business man and had won- 
derful resources of personal ability that were my 
constant admiration. About all such subjects he 
would talk to me with perfect frankness ; but when 
I began to talk about the treasures of the soul and 
the coin of the higher realm he put up his shield 
in a moment and met me with raillery and jest. 

On one occasion when we had been talking about 
the downfall of a man whom we had both known 
he seemed to be greatly stirred and his reserve 
broke down to some extent. He told me then that 
in his yoimger manhood he had at one time suc- 
cumbed to the fascination of strong drink, that his 
friends were greatly alarmed about it, and that 
finally he himself had become frightened and made 
up his mind that there was only one path of safety 
and that was to stop drink altogether. This he did, 
and declared that for years he had not touched it 
and never intended to do so again. 



112 THE GEEAT P0ETEAIT5 OF THE BIBLE 

I was more alarmed for him tlian ever wlien I 
knew this, and I urged upon him that the ground 
under his feet was not safe. With all the privilege 
of friendship I pleaded with him. I said to him : 
^•'There is only one thing that can make a man safe 
who has had your experience, and that is to give 
yourseK up to do the will of God with all your 
heart. Become an earnest Christian: let Christ 
dwell in your heart ; give yourself up to do good 
deeds for Christ's sake, and then your soul will be 
so possessed with a positive goodness that there will 
be no room for the evil to break in. But so long 
as you go on depending simply on the power of 
your will to keep you from doing wrong you are 
in danger. Those old appetites and lusts are by 
no means dead, they are only sleeping, and some 
day when you are overworked, some time when the 
market goes wrong with you, in some hour when 
your heart, is heavy or when you are sick, the 
enemy will spring forth and assault you in your 
weakened condition, and you will l^e a more help- 
less prey than you have ever been." 

I think he was truly moved by the argument; 
but, do my best, I was never able to rouse him to 
action. He had so much self-confidence, he had so 
much faith in his own power to master himself 
without the help of God or Christ or the Church, 



THE SLEEPING DOG m THE SINNER^S SOUL 113 

that he would not and did not open his heart to 
welcome Christ as his Saviour. 

It is only a few years ago that all this happened, 
and very recently his wife, whom he has loved with 
great devotion and who has been to him everything 
that a wife could be, came to me broken-hearted 
and distracted. Her husband had been caught, as 
I feared, in the net of the enemy. They had gone 
to a distant city to visit their only child, a 
daughter, who had married. This child came as 
near being the idol of her parents as it is possible 
for a child to be. While there, under an unusual 
pressure, this great, strong, self-willed, resource- 
ful friend of mine had given way to the temptation 
of drink. Of course it was like letting dovm the 
dam after a turbulent stream has for a long time 
been held back. It was like letting loose in the 
arena a wild beast that has been starved until it is 
frantic with hunger. He not only drank, but he 
drank hungrily, he drank recklessly, and with the 
touch of it his whole nature seemed to be trans- 
formed. He tempted his daughter to drink, and her 
husband, and within a few weeks the three of 
them drank to drunkenness again and again, until 
they were shamed and disgraced and humiliated 
before everybody who knew them. And my friend's 
wife said to me : ^'I am now in utter despair. The 
8 



114 THE GREAT POKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

two people who have been the great passion of 
my life, for either one of whom I would gladly 
have died, my husband and my child, have 
been degraded before my eyes. He, I think, 
will stand it but a little w^hile, and she, I fear, 
will be utterly blighted in the beautiful career 
that I had hoped for her. What is there left 
in life for me? Surely I have been smitten 
indeed!'' 

'Now I have been talking to you about one of the 
best men, as men go in worldly circles, that I have 
ever known, and I have told you the true story. 
What was the secret of it all ? Is it not plain that 
during all these years the dog of drunkenness 
was kept in the kennel of his soul ? Sometimes it 
slept. No doubt there were months, and possibly 
even years, when it never awakened. Sometimes it 
awakened and was hungry. It growled. It shook 
its chains. It pulled on them. It whined. It begged 
for drink. But the iron will of the man when he 
was at his best was, as yet, too much for the dog. 
There came a day, however, when his moral vital- 
ity was low. There came an hour when everything 
was propitious for evil. There came a time when 
he was morally weak and sensually strong. Then 
the dog aroused, hungry and vicious, and that iron 
will snapped under the strain, and the dog was at 



THE SLEEPING DOG IN THE SIMER^S SOUL 115 

Lis throat, the very dog he himself had kept chained 
in his kennel all these years. 

Do not imagine for a moment that it is only cer- 
tain kinds of sin, only special sorts of temptation, 
concerning which our theme is true, l^o, indeed ! 
It is true of every sin. It is true of every wicked 
appetite, of every evil lust, man is safe who 
permits sleeping passions of evil to remain alive 
in his soul. It is not enough simply to chain these 
evil passions. The only safety is in a heart cleansed 
of them, a soul illuminated by the presence of 
God's Spirit, a heart where Christ dwells and 
where good angels hold fellowship and communion. 
Paul said to the Galatians, "Walk in the Spirit, 
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." So I 
say to you, open your heart to Christ, let him come 
in and dwell there, and there shall be no room in 
your heart for a dog kennel of evil passions and 
lusts. Surely that was what Jesus meant when he 
said to ]!^icodemus, who was a moral man as men 
of the world go, and an exemplary man, "Ye must 
be born again !" It is not enough to be negatively 
good. Christ wants the open confession, the posi- 
tive committal, the aggressive service for righteous- 
ness, and that alone can put you into perfect safety 
as an armored soldier in the service of the Lord, 



116 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE X 

A Man''s Value Multiplied by Conveesion" 

I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have be- 
gotten in my bonds: which in time past was to thee un- 
profitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. — 
Philemon 10, 11. 

This is one of the sweetest love letters in tlie 
Bible, or, indeed, in all literature. It is a love 
letter from one man to another. In some place, 
possibly at Ephesns, Paul had run across Phile- 
mon, and with his accustomed fidelity had brought 
about his conversion to Christ. They had become 
very warm personal friends. Slavery was in that 
day almost universal, l^early all the heavy work 
of the world was done by slaves. Philemon had in 
his house a slave named Onesimus. He was a bad 
fellow, and finally ended a most unprofitable 
career, so far as his master was concerned, by run- 
ning away. It was in the time when Eome was the 
center of the earth, and when Onesimus got to 
drifting around; always having a hunted feeling, 
he drifted down to Rome. There some divine 
providence brought him to Paul's attention. Per- 
haps his homesickness and loneliness, or, more 



MAIsT^S VALUE MULTIPLIED BY CONVEBSIOJS- 117 

likely yet, his own hunger and poverty, drove him 
to Paul for help. 

E'ow, Paul was one of the greatest soul-winners 
that has ever blessed this world. His own religion 
was so genuine, and there was so much cheerful- 
ness and abounding joy about it, that it charmed 
nearly everybody who came into touch with him, 
and as Paul looked on this poor, hungry, runaway 
slave, about as hopeless and wretched a creature as 
any man ever looked on anywhere, his heart was 
filled with pity for him and he longed to win him 
to Christ and bring to light the buried manhood 
that was in him. As the miner rejoices to bring to 
the surface the hidden gold; as the searcher after 
diamonds delights to find the shining gems in the 
blue clay, so Christ and men who like Paul are 
possessed by the spirit of Christ delight in nothing 
so much as in seizing upon a man or a woman who 
has been trodden down in the mire and muck of sin 
until there is left no visible trace of the image of 
God, and through their love to cleanse and purify 
that lost jewel until, redeemed and glorified, it 
shines in the crown of God. Paul wanted all the 
more to save Onesimus because he was probably 
about the worst case he ever saw. I can hear the 
old white-haired hero as he chuckles to himself with 
holy glee: '^What a victory that will be over the 



118 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

devil ! What a triumph for my divine Lord if I 
can take this poor fellow, this runaway slave, who 
has never been any good to anybody since he was 
born, and save him from his sins ! I will build a 
fire of unselfish love in his soul and make a man of 
him ! Ah, that will be glorious !" 

So Paul set to work to win Onesimus to Christ, 
and he did it. The Christ in Paul was so apparent 
that as Paul talked with him and prayed with him 
and loved him this poor, despairing man whom no- 
body had ever loved found a great hunger in his 
soul to know the Saviour who had given to Paul 
such a glorious charm. 

When he is converted Paul sends him back to 
Philemon, and he tells Philemon all about it. He 
tells Philemon how glad he is that he has been able 
to bring about the conversion of Onesimus, and 
that he now loves him so much that he thinks about 
him as his own son, and he begs Philemon to re- 
ceive him with all the love and consideration he 
would if Paul had a son to send to him. He tells 
Philemon that he is well aware how good-for-noth- 
ing and unprofitable the fellow was in the past ; but 
all that is changed now, for he has become a man, 
a man of honor and integrity, a man who is will- 
ing to take the backward track of his life and 
make it right to the very best of his ability, a 



MAN^S VALUE MULTIPLIED BY COK'VEESIOIT 119 

man worthy to be loved and honored bj all true 
and noble sonls. 

It is on the matter of the multiplying of a man's 
value through his conversion to Christ that I want 
to ring the changes at this time. My message is 
that nothing increases any man's value so much as 
a genuine conversion to Christ, and this is true in 
every sense. 

I knew in a certain city the manager and chief 
owner of a large manufacturing plant. Several 
hundred men were employed in it. They were 
men of rather a low type of intelligence, and their 
employer led a cat-and-dog life with them. It was 
a very unpopular firm among the working folk of 
the city where the huge business was and is carried* 
on. Through that subtle freemasonry of laborers 
the word was passed around generally that they 
were hard taskmasters. 

The manager came one summer evening, a few 
years ago, to the office of a friend, and said : "I'll 
tell you what is the fact — the very devil is in those 
men down at our shop. There's no use trying to 
do anything with them. They are vicious and 
mean-spirited and are always up to some deviltry 
that makes us expense, just out of pure ugliness." 

"What's the matter now ?" inquired the friend. 

"Well," said the manufacturer, "the last thing 



120 THE GEEAT POETKAITS OF THE BIBLE 



thej have been up to is that during this spell 
of hot weather every time the foreman's back is 
turned they turn the water on and let it run every- 
where, wasting hogsheads of water that the com- 
pany has to pay for." 

^^Vhy did the men do that inquired the other, 
quietly. 

^^O, I suppose they wanted it a little cooler." 
what did you do about it V 

"0, I fixed 'em this time. I fitted a cap over 
every one of the faucets and left only one place in 
the whole plant where water could be got." 

When you take into consideration that there 
were from seven to eight hundred men employed 
there, doing the hottest sort of work, you can easily 
understand the uncomfortable position for the men 
and the mutual ill-will between the employer and 
his workmen. 

The manufacturer's friend, to whom he had 
opened his heart, was a shrewd-headed Christian 
man, and invited the troubled employer to hear an 
address that evening by another business man who 
represented an establishment that had great suc- 
cess through the control of their plant on Christian 
principles. 

The first manufacturer was a nominal Christian, 
but he felt that night as he listened that he had 



MAN^S VALUE MULTIPLIED BY COI^VEIiSION 121 

never really been personally converted to Christ. 
He felt convicted of business and social sin, and 
there and then he repented and asked God to for- 
give him and to help him to lead a new life among 
his men. 

The situation that confronted him was by no 
means an easy one, because of the lack of intelli- 
gence and moral worth among his employees. 
When he mentioned to his business associates his 
new purpose to seek to win the men's hearts by 
kindness, some of them said to him: "You are 
crazy. You can never get any appreciation of 
kindness or special interest out of the kind of cattle 
you deal with in your shops.'' But our friend's 
conversion was real, and he gave himself up to it 
with all the enthusiasm of his new-found love for 
Christ and his fellow-men. A little over a year 
after this new order of things began, at the invita- 
tion of the manager I visited his plant, and in that 
short time the profits of my friend's conver- 
sion had many practical results that could be 
summed up. 

As the summer advanced ice-water tanks were 
placed at convenient places, so that there was no 
longer any temptation to waste the water in order 
to have it cool. Huge fans were put up in the 
rolling mill and fresh air was introduced from the 



122 THE GEEAT POKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

outside to plaj down on the men at work over the 
fires ; and that summer for the first time in the his- 
tory of the plant it ran through the entire season 
without needing to stop on account of the heat. 
'Not only did it save in the health of the men, but 
the manager and his associates found that it was a 
good financial investment; for, while it cost only 
three hundred dollars to introduce and operate the 
fans, it was more than a thousand dollars in their 
pockets to avoid interruptions of other years caused 
by the men giving out on account of the heat. 

A system of shower baths has been introduced, 
and each man has a locker of his ovm. So a f oun- 
dryman comes to work in the morning in his or- 
dinary street attire and before he goes to work he 
changes his clothes and dons his rough working suit 
for the day. In the evening he has the luxury of 
a free shower bath where he can cleanse himself. 
Then he puts on his ordinary clothes for the street 
and, thoroughly refreshed and clean, he is ready to 
meet his friends in the car or his family at the tea 
table when he arrives home. Or if he is a young 
fellow he faces his sweetheart on the street without 
a blush save that which love or bashfulness in- 
spires. He does not go home a f oundryman, black 
and tarnished, and afraid he will meet somebody 
he knows; but he goes home a gentleman, and 



MAN^S VALUE MULTIPLIED BY COlSrVEESIOiq- 123 

doubtless with a library book in his hand, for the 
company has arranged with the city library au- 
thorities to set up a branch library in the office of • 
the firm. It started in with fifteen readers, and 
six weeks after it was introduced one hundred of 
these Bohemians and Poles were taking out books 
from this library. Many of the men, who never 
thought of reading anything before, take them and 
read on the cars going to and from their work. 

A restaurant has been introduced with wonder- 
ful results. A pint of coffee, steaming hot, made 
of the very best coffee to be obtained in the market, 
is sold to the men for one cent, and good sand- 
wiches for two cents. A large plate of corned beef 
and cabbage, or ribs of beef and mashed potatoes, 
is furnished for five or six cents, and a large sec- 
tion of pie for three cents. This restaurant 
promises at these prices to become entirely self- 
supporting. One result of this experiment fur- 
nishes a very suggestive lesson for social and tem- 
perance reformers. Before the restaurant was in- 
troduced from three hundred to four hundred men 
poured out at the noon hour into the neighboring 
liquor saloons for beer and other intoxicating 
drinks, and these saloons did a large business. But 
when the restaurant was put in with its hot coffee 
for a cent, all this stopped as if by magic ; and be- 



124 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

fore a week was out not more than two or three 
men left the plant at the noon hour for any or all 
purposes. 

The change in the manager had been as marvel- 
ous as in the men. I could hardly believe that this 
was the same man who less than two years before 
had turned ofp the water from his workmen in hot 
weather because of the mutual ill-will that existed 
between them. Though so short a time had passed, 
he had won the complete confidence and loyalty of 
his workmen, and he said to me, with beaming and 
enthusiastic face, ^^I do not know whether I shall 
reach it or not, but my ideal is to have the men who 
work for me regard me as their best friend, and in 
time to take the place in their affections and con- 
fidence of the selfish demagogues who have been 
controlling them." 

ITow, surely, you will agree with me that the 
multiplication of value in that man was as mar- 
velous as it was in the case of Onesimus, the runa- 
way slave, who was made a man, and a good man, 
through conversion to Jesus. 

There is one thing that I want to emphasize to 
every man and woman among you who is not a 
Christian, and that is that if you will give your 
heart to Christ he will make a great deal more out 
of you than you will ever be able to make out of 



MAiq"''s VALUE MULTIPLIED BY COI^VEESION 125 

yourself. He will multiply your value. You will 
be worth more to yourself. You will be worth more 
to your friends. You will be worth more to the 
world for all time to come. You remember how 
Jesus took the little boy's basket of loaves and 
fishes and fed the multitude with them. So he 
is able to deal with you. See what he did for 
John Bunyan, the drunken tinker of that little 
town of Bedford, England! When his Christian 
wife by her devotion and love brought about 
Bunyan's conversion to Christ, Jesus multiplied 
that man's powers, gave him visions and helped 
him to write them down, until he has been the 
cause of leading thousands and tens of thou- 
sands out of the City of Destruction and on the 
beautiful pilgrimage toward heaven through all 
the years since that day. Give Christ your heart 
and God's plan of multiplication will begin this 
very hour. He will multiply your value as a hus- 
band or a wife, or as a son or a daughter, or as 
a father or a mother, or as a friend. It may be 
your influence has been positively bad to some 
who have been under your sway. Give your heart 
to Christ and he will change all that and make 
your influence positively good to all within your 
reach. 

If you ask me how to come to Christ and make 



126 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

sure of your conversion, I assure you it is tlie sim- 
plest thing in tlie world. You have been going 
wrong. Turn about and go right. You have been 
indifferent to Christ. You have been living with- 
out any reference as to whether your life was pleas- 
ing to him or not. Begin now to do what he asks of 
you. He says, "Confess me before men." Do it. 
Turn your eyes on J" esus. You have been thinking 
about him as the Saviour of the world. Make it 
personal. Eemember that he is your Saviour, that 
he died for you, and that if you will turn to him 
he will forgive your sins and take away your hard, 
indifferent heart and give you a new heart that 
shall be sensitive to his will. 

Henry Moorehouse, during his first visit to 
America on evangelistic work, was in one of our 
cities the guest of a cultivated and wealthy gentle- 
man. This man had a daughter just advancing 
into womanhood and looking forward with bright 
anticipation to a gay and worldly life. One day 
she entered the library and found the evangelist 
poring over his Bible. Begging pardon for the in- 
trusion, she was about to retire, when he looked up 
and said, in his quiet and tender way, "Are you 
saved V 

She could only reply, "I^o, Mr. Moorehouse, I 
am not," 



mask's value multiplied by COIsTVEESION" 127 

Then came another question, "Would you like 
to be saved 

She thought for a moment of all that is meant 
by salvation, and of all that is meant by the lack of 
salvation, and she frankly answered, "Yes, I wish 
I were a sincere Christian." 

Then came the third question, asked very sol- 
emnly and earnestly, "Would you like to be saved 
now 

Under this searching thrust her head dropped, 
and she began to look into her heart. On the one 
hand her youth, her brilliant prospects, her father's 
wealth and position in society, made the world 
peculiarly attractive ; and on the other hand stood 
the Lord Jesus Christy who must then and there be 
received or rejected. ISTo wonder the struggle in 
her heart was severe. But as the realities of eter- 
nity swept before her vision she raised her eyes and 
calmly and resolutely said, "Yes, I want to be 
saved now." 

The supreme moment in her history was reached, 
and the preacher was led by the Holy Spirit to 
guide her wisely. 

He asked her to kneel beside him at the sofa and 
to read aloud the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. 
This she did in a tone that became tremulous and 
broken by sobs. "Eead it again/' said Henry 



128 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Moorehouse, gently, "and whenever yon find Ve/ 
'out/ and ^us/ put in ^1/ ^my/ and 'me.^ Kead 
it as if you were pouring out your own heart before 
God." The weeping girl read again: "He is de- 
spised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, 
and acquainted with grief : and I hid as it were my 
face from him; he was despised, and I esteemed 
him not. Surely he hath borne my griefs, and 
carried my sorrows : yet I did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted." Here she broke 
down completely, as the thought of her personal 
relations to the Lord Jesus in his sufferings for 
the first time fiashed into her mind. But, wiping 
away her blinding tears, she read on: "He was 
wounded for my transgressions, he was bruised for 
my iniquities: the chastisement of my peace was 
upon him ; and with his stripes I am healed. I like 
a sheep have gone astray; I have turned to my 
own way; and the Lord hath laid on him all my 
iniquities." 

She was silent for a moment, and then ex- 
claimed, with deep emotion, "0 Mr. Moorehouse, 
is this true?" 

"Dear child," he answered, "does not God say 
it?" 

Again she was silent for a time, but at length 
looking up, no longer through the tears of bitter 



man's value multiplied by CONVEKSIOlSr 129 

grief, but in joy and adoring gratitude and inex- 
pressible love, she said, ^^Then I am saved, for all 
mine iniquities have been laid on him, and no 
stroke remains for me.'^ She rose from her knees 
with the peace of God that passeth all understand- 
ing filling her heart and soul. 

Many years have passed since that day, and that 
young woman, whose conversion to Christ came so 
suddenly, has lived a life peculiarly blessed of God 
and full of profit and blessing to everyone she has 
known. 

The same divine Lord bore your sins in his own 
body on the tree, and waits ready to receive and 
forgive you and to multiply all that you have of 
good, and to take from you everything that is 
wrong. Come to him, I pray you, without delay ! 
9 



130 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XI 

Strange Bedfellows 

I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and 
flourishing in my palace: I saw a dream which made me 
afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of 
my head troubled me. — Daniel iv, 4, 5. 

Shakespeare makes one of his characters say, 
"Misery doth acquaint a man with strange bedfel- 
lows/' and of all the miseries which give bed- 
fellows to human beings which disturb their slum- 
ber and rob them of their peace sin is the worst. 

This old king of Babylon was outwardly in a 
most flourishing condition. He was the greatest 
and most powerful ruler in the world. We hear 
much talk about world powers in these days, but in 
that day the king of Babylon was the one great 
world power. There was no city on earth like 
Babylon. There was no king whose armies were 
so great, who was so rich in wealth, or who lived in 
such dazzling splendor as this ruler of Babylon. 
And yet he could not sleep. The trouble was that 
he was a sinner against God, and his peculiar sin 
was what we in our day would call worldliness. In 



STEAIS'GE BEDFELLOWS 



131 



his prosperity, in his power, he had forgotten God 
and gave him no reverence and no honor, but lived 
his own selfish life, thinking there was no one who 
conld interfere with him. 

One night he had a sudden awakening. He had 
a strange dream. He saw a tree, and it grew be- 
fore his eyes until it became so high and strong 
that it reached up to the heavens, and look as far 
as he could on either side he could not see the end 
to which its branches reached forth. The tree was 
very beautiful, and the fruit was so plentiful that 
the whole world could eat from it. All the beasts 
of the fields came and stayed under its shadow, 
and all the birds of the air flocked to that tree and 
made their nests among its branches, and all men 
came and fed upon the fruit. And while he looked 
with wonder and admiration at all this some one 
came down from heaven and stood by the tree and 
shouted, ^^Hew do^vn the tree, and cut off his 
branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit ; 
let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls 
from his branches : nevertheless leave the stump of 
his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and 
brass, in the tender grass of the field ; and let it be 
wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be 
with the beasts in the grass of the earth: let his 
heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's 



132 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

heart be given unto him ; and let seven times pass 
over him." 

And then the king awakened. He felt that this 
strange dream v^as meant as a warning to him. All 
his sins, all his follies, came up before him, and he 
was greatly troubled. There was no sleep for him 
that night. The next day he sought all the wise 
men and tried to find out what it meant; but he 
could learn nothing. At last he thought of Daniel 
and sent for him, and God gave Daniel the inter- 
pretation of the king's dream. He told him what it 
meant. He told him that that great tree which 
grew so high and strong and filled the earth, which 
became a nesting place for all the birds, a shadow 
for all wild beasts, and furnished food for men 
everywhere, was the king himself. It was a picture 
of his own greatness. And Daniel went on to tell 
him that the vision he had of the heavenly messen- 
ger who commanded that the tree should be cut 
down and destroyed, but its roots should be left in 
the earth, while his portion should be with the 
beasts of the fields till seven times pass over him, 
signified that the king himself should be driven 
from men, and his dwelling should be with the 
beasts of the fields, and that he should eat grass like 
oxen, and his punishment should last for seven 
years. 



STEAWaE BEDFELLOAVS 



133 



^Tow, we are assured that all this happened to 
[N'ebuchadiiezzar. Grown beastly, and given over 
to self-indulgence, he finally lost his reason and 
went forth like an idiot, a wild man, to eat grass 
with the oxen^ and his nails grew like birds' claws, 
and his body was covered with long hair like 
feathers. 

The message which I bring is indicated not only 
in our text but in this story. Sin robs the soul of 
peace. A man may be flourishing ever so much. 
He may live in a house as fine as that belonging to 
the king of Babylon. He may have the most deli- 
cate food to eat, the choicest wines to drink, the 
softest raiment to wear, and every service that man 
may render to him, and still be doomed to a sleep- 
less couch because of the mysterious bedfellows 
with which his sins will furnish him. Many a man 
commits his sin as though it were a little thing to 
do, and then goes on his way thinking it is all over 
with and that is the last of it. But there was never 
such a detective as sin ; no man can outrun it ; no 
man can escape from it ; it follows him more faith- 
fully than a hound follows his master, and when 
it will it howls in his ears and will not let him 
sleep. 

You remember the story of Jacob, and how he 
sinned against his brother. He took advantage of 



134 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

him and. cheated him. Tor fear of his brother he 
fled away into a foreign land. He was gone for 
many years, and then he came back with great 
flocks and herds and his family which had grown 
np about him ; and all was going pleasantly when 
suddenly a messenger came and told him that his 
brother was coming to meet him with a large com- 
pany of soldiers, and then there flashed back upon 
him a memory of his sin against his brother. He 
remembers his meanness to him. He thought it 
was sharp at the time, but now it looks ugly 
enough, and he would gladly go back and make 
it right if he could. He cannot sleep. All 
peace is gone from his heart. Remember, my 
friend, you will meet your sin again. 'No man 
ever escapes from his sin by simply covering it 
up and trying to forget it. ^^He that covereth 
his sins shall not prosper'' is a saying as true 
as it is ancient. A man who tries to cover his 
sins is filling his bed with bedfellows that are 
like serpents. 

I read some time ago of a man who tried to steal 
a ride in an empty freight car. It was a box car 
that had been loaded with bananas and was going 
back empty. There was a little hay or straw on the 
floor of the car, and the poor fellow stretched him- 
self down upon it and went to sleep. He thought 



STEAI^GE BEDFELLOWS 



135 



he had found something very nice, and wonld steal 
a long ride in perfect comfort. But he woke in the 
night, with the train going, and foimd he was 
locked np in the car with a nest of tarantulas, and 
the dangerous crawling things horrified him and 
drove him wild. He was locked in there for many 
hours and his hair turned white from fear. He 
had an experience so full of horror that it almost 
unbalanced his brain. There are men and women 
all around us who are getting ready to spend years 
just like that. They are filling the mind with 
memories that will sting like a tarantula or hiss 
like a serpent. 

The sinner always carries his own worst enemy 
in his breast. There in his own heart does he carry 
the enemy who is able to poison his sleep. He may 
lie in a chamber by himself, with the door locked 
and bolted, and still he has bedfellows that will not 
let him sleep. 

Perhaps some man sneers as he listens to this, 
and says: ^^That is all nonsense. I have always 
done as I pleased, paid no attention to God or the 
Bible or religion ; I have done just as I wanted to 
do, and I have broken one law of the Decalogue 
after another, and there is not a man in town who 
can sleep better than I can. My head scarcely 
touches the pillow till I am asleep. Such a Gospel 



136 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

as you preach is only made to frighten women and 
children.'' Ah, my friend, I am not trying to 
frighten anyone. But I am telling you the solemn 
truth of God's Word, and the solemn truth of 
human history as well, when I assure you that both 
the Bible and history bear out the declaration that 
^Hhere is no peace to the wicked." You sleep now, 
but the day will come when you cannot sleep if you 
do not get rid of your sins. God does not need to 
pay at the end of the week, but at last he pays. 
JSTo man can mock God; in the end he must reap 
his own sowing. Men imagine they can escape it, 
but they cannot. If we desire results in eternity 
to please us we must sow the right kind of seed to 
bring about such a harvest. A philosopher once 
said to his friend, ^^Which of the two would you 
rather be, Croesus, the wealthiest but one of the 
worst men of his day, or Socrates, who was the 
poorest of the poor, but distinguished for many 
virtues?" The answer was that he would rather 
be Croesus in this life and Socrates in the next ! 
But that is impossible. And even if it were possi- 
ble a man would lose by it. For here in this world 
sin will rob the soul of its peace. As has been 
often said, the devil has no happy old men. He 
has no peaceful old women. A youth given over to 
self-indulgence peoples the mind and heart with 



STKAiq^GE BEDFELLOWS 



137 



memories that fill the bedroom of middle life and 
old age with dragons. 

Edgar Allan Poe, in his greatest poem, '^The 
Eaven/' tells how the night was sleepless and the 
heart was full of sorrow. And in the visions of 
that sleepless night there came into his chamber 
the incarnation of all those memories and fears 
and sins that disturbed his peace in the form 
of a huge black raven that took up its position 
on the bust of Pallas above his chamber door. At 
first he was inclined to smile at it and think it 
of no great importance, and then it was a thing 
to argue with and reason with, and finally it was 
a thing to plead with, but he found that whether 
he smiled or argued or implored it was the in- 
carnation of evil that could not be thrust out or 
gotten rid of. He says : 

"Then, metliought, the air grew denser, perfumed from 

an unseen censer 
Swung by seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted 

floor. 

'Wretch!' I cried, 'thy God hath lent thee — by these 

angels he hath sent thee 
Respite — respite and nepenthe from thy memories of 

Lenore! 

Quaff, oh, quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost 
Lenore!' 

Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore/ 



138 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



"'Prophet!' said I, 'thing of evil! — prophet still, if bird 
or devil! 

Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee 
here ashore, 

Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land en- 
chanted — 

On this home by horror haunted — tell me truly, I im- 
plore — 

Is there — is there balm in Gilead? — tell me — tell me, I 
implore!' 

Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.' 

"'Prophet!' said I, 'thing of evil — prophet still, if bird 
or devil! 

By that Heaven that bends above us — by that God we 
both adore — 

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant 
Aidenn, 

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name 
Lenore — 

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name 
Lenore.' 

Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.' 

"'Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I 

shrieked, upstarting — 
'Get thee back into the tempest and the night's Plutonian 

shore! 

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul 
hath spoken! 

Leave my loneliness unbroken! — quit the bust above my 
door! 

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form 
from off my door!' 

Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.' 



STEAISTGE BEDFELLOWS 



139 



"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is 
sitting 

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; 
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is 
dreaming, 

And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow 
on the floor; 

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on 
the floor 

Shall be lifted — nevermore!" 

Are you preparing for yourself a future like 
that ? This is the question that should force itself 
home on every heart. 

If any hear that question with sadness, conscious 
of stinging memories that are already robbing them 
of peace, and who have sought in one way or an- 
other, but without avail, to escape from them and 
the sins that caused them, I want to point you 
again to the hope that is at your very heart's door. 
You might travel over the whole earth, and change 
your circumstances and conditions a thousand 
times, and if you did not escape from your sin you 
would not find happiness and peace. The trouble 
is in yourself. Open your heart to Christ and find 
the forgiveness of your sins and you shall have 
peace. 

A very rich woman who was the owner of a 
wealthy estate in Scotland fell ill, and she visited 



140 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



the continent of Europe seeking for a cure of her 
maladies. She went to Baden-Baden and tried the 
waters there. Then she went to Carlsbad and tried 
those waters, and then on to Homhurg, but got 
worse instead of better. At last, in despair, she 
said to a great physician, "What shall I do His 
reply was: "Medicine can do nothing for you. 
You have only one chance, and that is the waters 
of Pit Keathly, Scotland." "Is it possible V she 
replied. "Why those waters are on my own 
estate!" She returned and drank at the fountain 
at her own gate, and in a few months she was com- 
pletely recovered. So men go around the world 
and plunge into all manner of experiences trying 
to find peace for their hearts, when the secret is 
at their very doors. Kepent of your sins, be for- 
given through Jesus Christ, and you shall have the 
peace of God that passeth all understanding. 



THE FOOD FOE HEROES 



141 



CHAPTEE XII 

The Food fok Heeoes 

Neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are 
bread for us. — Numhers xiv, 9. 

Moses had led Israel to the door of the promised 
landj and he tarried there with the great company 
of people while certain representatives chosen from 
each great family among them were sent ahead to 
spy out the land and come back and make report. 
They were able to do this without accident or mis- 
fortune. They found it a very fruitful and fertile 
land. They brought back clusters of grapes so 
large that it required two men to carry them on a 
staff between them. They brought also pomegran- 
ates and figs in abundance, and had great stories to 
tell of how they reveled in honey and milk. So far 
they were all agreed on the report. Ten of the 
men, however, while agreeing as to the fertility and 
desirability of the land, declared that it never could 
be captured by Moses because it was a land of 
giants, people so large that the spies declared they 
felt like grasshoppers when they saw them. This 
report spread dismay and terror among the people. 



142 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Every coward in the whole army took fright, and 
very soon there was a panic that nothing could stay. 

l^ow, the other two spies were Caleb and Joshua, 
as brave men as the light of history has ever shone 
upon. They too had seen the giants, but they had 
not felt like grasshoppers in their presence. They 
were sure that God was with Israel, and that if 
they would go forward he would give the land into 
their possession as he had promised. It was dur- 
ing Caleb's vain attempt to quell the panic that was 
rising among the people that he uttered the strik- 
ing language of the text. He urged them that they 
had no reason to fear the giants, for under God's 
help the giants would become but the bread on 
which they should feed. They would not listen to 
him and turned back into the wilderness. It is 
worthy of note that those cowards, who were so 
careful of their scalps and were so afraid that they 
would get killed, all had their coffins ordered before 
Caleb and Joshua, who were ready to face the 
giants. These two brave men were the only ones 
who entered the promised land forty years later. 
They were always ready to risk life for truth and 
God, and their very heroic fortitude was their pro- 
tection. 

Our theme is apparent. Difficulties and trials 
constitute the very bread on which heroic souls are 



THE FOOD FOE HEROES 



143 



nourished. Great men and women have never been 
produced by self-indulgence, but rather by self- 
denial and self-sacrifice. The overcoming of diffi- 
culties, the feeding on them as on daily bread, is 
the secret of all great triumphs among men in 
every department of human life. 

Paderewski, when told by her royal highness, 
Princess Victoria, that he was "surely inspired," 
answered: "Your royal highness will, I dare say, 
be surprised when I tell you that I remember the 
day when I was quite an indifferent player. I was 
determined, however, to be what the world calls a 
genius, and to be a genius I well knew that I must 
first be a drudge, for genius and drudgery always 
go hand in hand. Genius" — and Paderewski spoke 
excitedly — "is three quarters drudgery — ^that's 
what genius is. I at one time practiced day after 
day, year after year, till I became almost insensi- 
ble to sound — became a machine, as it were. I^ow 
^Paderewski is a genius,' says the world ! Yes ; but 
Paderewski, your royal highness, was a drudge be- 
fore he was a genius !" Here is an illustration of 
our theme. If Paderewski had not bravely faced 
the giants of drudgery, and eaten them as a hungry 
man does bread, the world would never have been 
charmed by his music. 

A recent writer says that necessity may be a 



144 THE GEEAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

grim friend but it is a real one. To have vacilla- 
tion ended and concentration, ingenuity, and deter- 
mination forced into being is no small blessing. 
The development of onr powers is the real point, 
and it thrives best under pressure. When Cortez 
would make a hero out of every man of his little 
army he burned up his ships, so that the dangers 
and difficulties were multiplied. There was only 
one alternative, victory or death. 'No man faltered 
after that. The Prince of Orange at a great battle 
where the Spaniards were on one side and the 
ocean on the other said to his soldiers, ^^Unless you 
eat the Spaniards you will have to drink the sea.'' 
To be forced to rely upon ourselves and to do and 
dare to the utmost creates moral muscle as well as 
physical muscle and is the best nourishment for 
heroic spirits. 

The story is told of a stage driver in Montana, 
who on one winter's day had for his only passengers 
a mother and her baby. A sudden blizzard over- 
took them and the air became bitterly freezing. 
Every wrap the driver could possibly spare was 
given to the mother and her child. But though the 
babe was kept warm, struggle against it as she 
might, the fatal drowsiness which is the premoni- 
tion of death by freezing began to seize and be- 
numb the mother. An anxious glance into the 



THE FOOD FOE HEROES 



145 



stage showed the driver what was wrong. While 
the mother hugged the babe to herself her head was 
swaying helplessly. The driver stopped the stage, 
opened its door, and taking the babe from the 
mother's arms wrapped it thickly in blankets and 
furs and placed it securely under the shelter of a 
seat. Then he pulled the mother out of the stage. 
The shock and the necessity of standing on the 
ground partially awakened her. Then he slammed 
to the door, sprang to his seat, whipped up his 
horses, and left the woman standing there. This 
brought her to her senses. At once she began to 
run after the stage, screaming, "My baby! My 
baby ! O, my baby Forced into this rude exer- 
cise, her blood began to flow swiftly and warmly; 
the death sleep was banished. As soon as he dared 
the driver stopped the stage, assisted the now thor- 
oughly aroused and warmed woman into it, and 
putting the babe back into her arms and wrapping 
both as protectingly as possible drove them to 
safety. If that woman had not been compelled to 
eat the bread of hard and terrifying exertion she 
would have died. And so in a higher sense it is 
often true that the only way to save us from the 
more deadly sleep of self-indulgence is to force us 
into exertion and battle with difficulty and hard- 
ship. 

10 



146 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



There was a belief in olden times that when a 
man slew an enemy the strength of that foe thus 
vanquished was added to the strength of the victor. 
That is always true in a moral combat. The 
hard struggles that put us to our wits' end, that 
demand that we shall deny ourselves personal com- 
fort and luxury and self-indulgence in order that 
we may do some work that is worth doing or help 
on some cause that makes for righteousness — this 
is the food that nourishes real life in us, and no 
man eats such bread without getting stronger. 

There is always that about every one of us which 
makes us want to get along as easily as we can in 
the world. If that element gets the victory it 
means stagnation. There is no progress when that 
desire masters in any human life. The proper 
thing for us is to wish to do the best thing that can 
be done by us, and when we set out to do that we 
often find that there is no easy way to do the best. 
It is a hard path, but it is the only path that will 
give us peace, the only one that will give us satis- 
faction in the end. Many people in the church 
wonder why it is that their Christian life is so 
tasteless compared to the radiant and happy experi- 
ences enjoyed by some others. The reason is very 
clear. They are trying to get along in their Chris- 
tian life by the easiest path. They give as little 



THE rOOD FOR HEEOEf* 



147 



as they can and do as little as they can in order to 
feel at all respectable in the church. They let their 
religion discommode them in their self-indulgences 
just as little as possible. Jesus Christ said, ^^Take 
up your cross and follow me/' "Deny yourself;" 
but there are many Christian people who, if they 
were to try to find what it was they were denying 
themselves of for Christ, would find it very hard 
work to discover it. They live just exactly as they 
would live if they were not in the church. The 
only difference, if any, is that they go to church 
when they feel like it. Their religion does not 
anywhere tug at the heart and soul and nerve of 
life. They remind me of rummage sales. It is 
quite popular now to gather up all the old odds and 
ends of clothes and the things we never expect to 
use again, and turn them to some account at a pub- 
lic sale. And there are many people who deal with 
God that way. They give God the waste shreds 
of their lives, the stray bits of time, and the almost 
worthless fragments of opportunity. Wlien the call 
comes for service we begin to cast about for the 
things which we may give at least sacrifice, instead 
of saying, "Here, Father, is the very best I have. 
Take it, and use it, and use me as seemeth best to 
thee." There are some who read whose Christian 
life is far from satisfactory because it has been 



148 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

made too easy. Pray God to give you hard 
things to do for his sake. Put yourselves to self- 
sacrifice and devotion in service and you will find 
that that is the food which will fill your religious 
life with romance and heroism. 

Our theme has a great and important message 
for those who are not Christians. The enemy of 
souls is always seeking to hold men back from 
accepting Christ and the Christian life by making 
them believe that it is a hard way and a rugged 
road; while at the same time assuring them that, 
the way of sin is an easy and a pleasant path. He 
says nothing to them about the thorns that are in 
the path of the transgressor. He says nothing to 
them about the thieves who wait beside the road 
that leads downward to the pit, but much of the 
giants who dwell in the promised land. ;N"ow there 
is a sense in which it is easier to be a sinner than 
it is to be good. All wicked passions and appetites 
and lusts which cry out for indulgence make it easy 
to yield to sin, but there is a dagger behind every 
such yielding. The whole path of sin is ambushed 
with enemies, and pain and remorse and dread and 
terror are all along the way. On the other hand, 
the path of righteousness is a path of self-respect, 
a path of honor, a path of peace even in the midst 
of struggle. Wliile it may be hard to dash the cup 



THE FOOD FOE HEEOES 



149 



of sinful pleasure aside and start upon the rugged 
road of truth and right living, yet every step means 
a stronger manhood or a nobler womanhood. And 
the giants in the way, in the language of Caleb, 
will be the very bread on which you shall feed as 
one by one you overcome them and destroy them. 

Perhaps even now some young soul stands at the 
crossroads. You are tempted to give way to sin 
and wrong doing. The temptation is very real and 
very fascinating. Perhaps the sin is mixed up 
with something that is noble and good in you. 
Satan thus transforms himself sometimes into an 
angel of light. But you may always tell him in 
one way for the devil that he is, and that is when 
the thing he wants you to do is something which 
the Bible and your conscience say is wrong. An- 
gels of light, who are true angels, never urge people 
to do wrong. But this terrible temptation is upon 
you, and you look down that path, and your feet 
want to go that way. If you yield to your per- 
sonal preference you will go, and yet you feel that 
to do so is to surrender yourself to evil and sell 
your immortal soul. 

On the other hand, there is a road that leads up- 
ward toward a true and pure career. But it seems 
hard; it means so much self-denial; it means the 
very crucifixion of appetites that seem so vital and 



150 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

alive in you that you find it hard to bring yourself 
to enter upon it and to turn away from the other. 
O, I pray God that 1 may have the right word to 
say to you as you stand there where the roads 
divide. Let me assure you that on that road of sin 
it is only the first steps which are pleasant ; after- 
ward there are the bondage of wicked habit and the 
goadings of a wounded conscience. But on the 
other road of goodness the first steps are the hard- 
est, for every giant of difficulty you slay becomes 
your food, his strength becomes your strength, and 
you go forward growing stronger day by day and 
always with a conscience void of offense toward 
God and man. 

I call you to this high and noble life. It is the 
best life any man or woman ever lived. It will give 
full play for all your powers and will give rewards 
beyo]jd your highest dreams. 



A GIEL^S SONG AND A KING^S JAVELIN 151 



CHAPTEK XIII 
A GiRL''s Song and a King^s Javelin 

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit 
from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst 
of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other 
times: and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. And Saul 
cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to 
the wall with it. — 1 Samuel xviii, 10, 11. 

To get at tlie point of that javelin we must look 
at yesterday, when the army of Saul, returning vic- 
torious from the triumph over the Philistines, 
which had been won first of all because of David's 
chivalric fight with Goliath, was hailed with ac- 
clamations and songs by the people. This was 
quite characteristic of the manners of oriental 
lands. In that part of the world it is the custom 
of the people in that manner to hail the arrival of 
any friend who has been absent for a long time, 
and especially to honor the return of a victorious 
army. Practically all the inhabitants issue from 
the towns and villages through which the returning 
host is expected to pass, in order to form a 
triumphal procession to celebrate their valor. In 
these processions the women and children naturally 



152 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

form the majority, and the young girls praise the 
heroes with songs in honor of their brave and cour- 
ageous deeds. Usually some local poet will write 
a ballad calling special attention to the particular 
heroes of the campaign, and these names will be 
sung and cheered by the populace as the soldiers 
pass by. 

On the occasion connected with our text the peo- 
ple had assembled along the roads in great multi- 
tudes to welcome Saul and his victorious hosts. 
Some poet in the neighborhood, who had been spe- 
cially inspired with admiration for David, had 
picked him out as the hero of his poem, and with 
more frankness than wisdom had put Saul and 
David in contrast, very much to SauFs disadvan- 
tage. The song had pleased the girls, and so, set 
to some popular tune of the time, they sang it again 
and again as the soldiers marched by. 'No doubt 
the soldiers were astonished, even though they 
cheered, as they heard those sweet-voiced Hebrew 
girls singing, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and 
David his ten thousands.'' Now, as a matter of 
fact, this was true, for David in killing Goliath was 
really the cause of the entire victory which the 
army of Saul had won. But this by no means 
sugar-coated the pill for Saul, and as the proud 
king rode by and heard the girls singing a song 



A GIEL^S SOl^a AND A KII^G^S JAVELIN 153 

which gave David ten times as much praise as him- 
self he was mad clear through. 

How often a brilliant young man, especially if 
he be a public hero, finds his worst enemies to be 
among his friends. Voltaire once said, ^^If God 
will take care of my friends I will charge myself 
with my enemies." Certain it is that from the 
young and brilliant David down to our own genial 
and daring Hobson the greatest danger to the hero 
has come from his friends, from the people who 
admire him and wish to do him honor. 

From the day Saul heard that song the record 
says he ''eyed David." That is, he looked on 
David with suspicion and jealousy. If Saul had 
been a broad-minded man he would have considered 
that any victory on the part of his officers or 
soldiers which helped to strengthen the nation and 
to break down the power of its enemies was in the 
truest sense an honor to the king. But Saul was 
jealous of all the credit for victory, the credit 
which by no means belonged to him. True, Saul 
may have felt that giving David ten to one was 
more than he deserved, but he did the worst thing 
possible for himself when he allowed jealousy to 
make its home in his heart because for the mo- 
ment another was the popular hero. One of the 
commonest sources of sorrow and misery is the un- 



154 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

happiness that comes to people because they think 
they do not get their proper share of credit for the 
work they do. We have had a long wrangle which 
has entered State legislatures and the national 
Congress and been debated in the newspapers and 
discussed everywhere as to who should have the 
most credit for a certain naval victory in the 
Spanish- American War. 'Now there was glory 
enough in that victory for everybody connected 
with it, but the quarrel over who should have the 
most credit sent one of the men interested into an 
untimely grave and has embittered the life of the 
other. Edward Everett Hale is right when, he 
says that the true secret of peace is to do your very 
best to help the world onward, and then never care 
who gets the credit for it. If Saul had followed 
that standard how different would have been his 
career ! 

This story suggests to us the deadly character 
of the sin of jealousy. The Bible is full of such 
suggestions. It was jealousy that fired the heart 
of Cain with malice and hatred. He saw that his 
brother AbeFs sacrifice was accepted while his own 
was rejected. Immediately jealousy made its 
home in his heart. His countenance fell, his face 
got long and gloomy. God warned him of his dan- 
ger and called his attention to the fact that Abel 



A GIRL^S SON-Q AITD A KIITa^S JAVELIIT 155 

had nothing whatever to do with the rejection of 
his sacrifice, and assured him that if he turned 
over a new leaf and did right he also would be ap- 
proved. But jealousy still lurked in Cain's heart, 
and it grew until Cain could no longer restrain 
himself, for Solomon says, ^^Jealousy is the rage 
of a man.'' So when the rage got too much for him 
Cain went and killed his brother. 

It was jealousy that seized the heart of Miriam, 
the sister of Moses. Miriam was a bright and a 
good woman. She was a woman of strong mind, a 
beautiful singer, and had many good qualities. 
But she was older than Moses, and from the time 
she had watched over him when he lay in his little 
ark of bulrushes among the reeds on the edge of 
the river ITile until he was the chief lawgiver of 
mankind she had always been the first woman with 
him. As the years went on she had been perfectly 
satisfied to have more influence over Moses than 
anybody else, and then, just as she was rejoicing in 
her supremacy, never dreaming that she was in any 
danger of losing it, Moses married a black woman 
from Ethiopia. Miriam was not only disgusted 
with Moses, but she let jealousy nestle in her heart 
and brood there until its wild rage drove her into 
sin, a sin which caused the punishment of God to 
fall upon her, and she went out from the camp a 



156 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

leper. Many another woman wlio lias not shown 
the leprosy on her face and hands has had a leprous 
heart produced by allowing jealousy to live there 
in her secret imaginations. 

It was jealousy that made the elder brother in 
the story of the prodigal son so black with anger 
when he came home at night and found his brother 
had come back and that the father had made a 
feast with which to welcome him. It was his jeal- 
ousy that threw gloom over the happy occasion. 

So it was jealousy that hastened on the down- 
ward career of Saul. He eyed David. His eyes 
burned with jealous fire whenever they saw David, 
and so jealousy gTew in his heart. All night he 
could not sleep. The more he pondered on it, and 
the more he let his jealous rage have its way, the 
more it seemed as though David was to blame for 
something. The applause of the people came to 
look in SauFs eyes like a personal insult offered 
the king by David himself. [N'ow, David was en- 
tirely innocent. He had not a thought that was 
disloyal to Saul. He had not done one thing that 
should have evoked anything but love and con- 
fidence from Saul. But because the people gave 
him more credit than they did Saul, and a few 
bright-eyed girls had sung a song that stirred SauFs 
wrath, jealousy was given a free rein. 



A eiEL^S SOISTG AND A KING^S JAVELIN 157 

By the next morning Saul was in a bad plight. 
His state of mind was such that his servants sent 
out for David to come in and play for him on his 
harp, Saul was fond of music, and David was the 
most famous harper of his time. On previous occa- 
sions David had been able to arouse the king from 
these gloomy moods. But now while David played 
SauFs jealous fire raged in his heart. He eyed 
David while he played. David might as well have 
made music to a deaf man as to have played to 
Saul that morning. Suddenly the jealous rage be- 
came uncontrollable. Saul sprang to his feet and 
cried, ^'I'U pin thee to the wall with this javelin!" 
and hurled the javelin point-blank at the startled 
youth. But David was young and nimble, and he 
dodged the javelin and escaped. 

And then the record says a wonderful thing — 
that after that Saul was afraid of David. What 
a strange way of putting it that is ! One can un- 
derstand why David might be afraid of Saul, for 
Saul was a king with an army at his back. But 
why should the king fear the youthful David? 
Joseph Parker says that it is the mystery of 
spiritual character. There was something about 
David which Saul could not comprehend. 'Not his 
physical power, not his social descent, not his musi- 
cal genius, but the fact that there was again and 



158 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

again a look in the young face which haunted the 
king in his dreams, reproved him in the midst 
of his vices, and rebuked him for all his falling 
away from God. As Judas was afraid of Christ 
in the garden and fell back to the ground before 
him, so every king evil-disposed like Saul, or every 
ruffian band, or murderer like Iscariot, will fall 
back from the truly righteous and noble character. 
David exerted no conscious influence; it was no 
purj)ose of his to affright King Saul ; he attended 
to his daily business, cultivated communion with 
God, walked in the ways of goodness, and his 
quietly and simply doing these things invested him 
with that weird power before which the kingly 
heart quailed. 

There is a beautiful example in David's conduct 
at that time. David and the king were alone to- 
gether. The king missed him with his javelin. It 
was David's turn. ISTo one can doubt that, young 
and agile as he was, the youth who had slain 
Goliath of Gath could easily have killed the unde- 
fended Saul. But neither then nor afterward 
would he touch him. Again and again he spared 
him. He was the Lord's anointed, and David 
would not touch his life. He would not give back 
javelin for javelin. There is a good suggestion in 
that for us. If men throw their javelins at us, and 



A GIEL^'s SOISTG AND A KIN"g''s JAVELIN 159 

criticise us, and say unjust and cruel things about 
us, let us leave their javelins lying at their feet 
and go our way. Life is too short and time is too 
sacred to waste it in hurling javelins of revenge. 
It is not for us to return evil for evil. It is rather 
for us to give good for evil. After this day David 
went back again when Saul pretended repentance, 
and took his harp with him, and made sweet music 
as of yore in the ears of his enemy. And yet again 
Saul hurled the javelin at him, but David would 
not pick it up. He kept to his harp, and went 
forth with his hands clean. Long before Paul 
wrote David was living what Paul crystallized into 
a great rule of life in the letter to the Romans: 
"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather 
give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance 
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore 
if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink : for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of 
fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but over- 
come evil with good.'' 



160 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XIY 
Is Life Worth the Candle? 

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had 
wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do : and, 
behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there 
was no profit under the sun. — Ecclesiastes ii, 11. 

I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my de- 
parture is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: 
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing. — 2 Timothy iv, 6-8. 

In these two passages we have the testimonj of 
experts on human life. It would he hard to select 
out of the famous and brilliant characters that have 
adorned human history and helped to make history 
two men so well equipped to give evidence about 
life, its gain and its loss, its value or its lack of 
value, than Solomon and Paul. 

Each of these men judges human life from the 
standpoint of his own experience in it, and they 
differ as much as it would be possible for men to 
differ in their judgment of its value. One man de- 
clares that he hates life, and that all is vanity and 



IS LIFE WORTH THE CANDLE? 161 

vexation of spirit ; that in hnman life a wise man 
is no better than a fool; and that everything 
changes to ashes. While the other man declares, 
after a long life, when he is nearing the end, that 
the fight of life has been good, the race full of in- 
terest, and the voyage, though stormy, enjoyable, 
and that he has kept, till his head is gray with age, 
the hope and faith with which he started out in 
young manhood. 

'Now, from the wide divergence of this testimony 
we are brought face to face with this fact, that life 
is worth living to some people and is without profit 
to others. Solomon and his class find life decep- 
tive; it is full of vanity and vexation of spirit. 
Paul and all the people like him find life spicy and 
interesting, full of reasons for thanksgiving, ever 
increasing in hopefulness and enthusiasm, and face 
the sunset with the buoyancy of heart known only 
to those who believe that it is also the sunrise of 
immortality. Surely it is worth our while to study 
these two attitudes which make all the difference 
between success and failure in human life. 

King Solomon represents that vast class of men 
and women who expect to find life valuable be- 
cause of what they can get out of it. To them life 
is a gold mine where they are to constantly dig 
out the precious treasures. To them life is a store- 
11 



162 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



house from which they are to receive all precious 
things. They expect to find happiness and peace 
of soul by getting. Solomon tried it on the most 
dignified and glorious scale. 

First of all, he was a very brilliant man. Grod 
had given him great wisdom, so that none of his 
ancestors and none of the men who came after him 
were as wise as he. "NoWj Solomon considered his 
conditions and made up his mind that he would 
get out of his wisdom all the joy there was in it. 
He gave his whole heart and soul up to search out 
wisdom. He proposed to know more than any man 
ever had about the world in which he lived. He 
thought that in that way he would get peace and 
have great joy of soul. He says: ^^I communed 
with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to 
great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all 
they that have been before me in Jerusalem : yea, 
my heart had great experience of wisdom and 
knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom." 
And yet, to Solomon's great astonishment, he 
found that after a little the eye failed to get joy 
out of seeing, and the ear became palled from much 
hearing. He says: "The eye is not satisfied with 
seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." And so 
this great, splendid king, the wisest man of his day, 
though the world was full of the fame of his knowl- 



IS LIFE WORTH THE CAKDLE ? 163 

edge, came back from it all with the bitter cry : "I 
perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For 
in much wisdom is much grief: and he that in- 
creaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." That 
search of Solomon after peace through wisdom and 
knowledge should stand out forever as a warning 
of the fact that the mere gathering of wisdom in 
order that a man may be wise for the gratification 
of his own selfishness will never give peace to a 
human soul. It never has and it never will, 
and every man who has tried it from the purely 
selfish standpoint of his own gratification has 
agreed with Solomon that the result was ^Vexation 
of spirit." 

Then Solomon tried another experiment. He 
decided that he would give himself up to pleasure. 
He would no longer devote himself to the deep 
things of knowledge, but he would seek the pleas- 
ure of the senses. His eye should see beautiful 
sights; his ear should hear beautiful sounds; he 
should know all the sweet and soft caresses of love ; 
everything that vast power, that unlimited wealth, 
and that his great wisdom could compass to make 
every drop of blood in his veins tingle with life and 
make every sensitive nerve quiver with delicate 
delight should be brought together. With this in 
view he gathered rare wines from the ends of the 



164 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

earth, and gathered the most beautiful women from 
the palaces of the world to grace his banquets and 
give zest to his revelry. He built great public 
works; he erected beautiful palaces, and planted 
vineyards. He laid out gardens and orchards, and 
from the ends of the earth rare shrubs and trees 
were brought, yielding every variety of flower and 
of fruit. He built great reservoirs to hold the 
water to irrigate his gardens and his orchards. He 
had an army of servants to wait upon him and 
minister to his comfort. He had great summer 
palaces, and wide-stretching fields, and far-reach- 
ing pastures filled with flocks of cattle and herds 
of sheep. He gathered together the greatest col- 
lection of silver vessels and gold vessels and rich 
treasure that had ever been seen in the world. He 
was a lover of music^ was Solomon, and his court 
became the musical center of the world of his time. 
Men singers and women singers from every land 
were attracted to it^ and all the musical instru- 
ments knoAvn among the tribes of men were 
gathered together in the great orchestras that made 
music for Solomon. And he says about it himself, 
^^So I was great, and increased more than all that 
were before me in Jerusalem : also my wisdom re- 
mained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes de- 
sired I kept not from them, I withheld not my 



IS LIFE WORTH THE CANDLE? 



165 



heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all 
my labor: and this was my portion of all my 
labor." And then he gives his final summing up 
of what all this great search meant to him, this vast 
struggle for pleasure, and this is what he says: 
^'Then I looked on all the works that my hands had 
wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do : 
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, 
and there was no profit under the sun." 

Solomon, though he was a king, though he had 
vast power, though he had unlimited wealth, 
though he had the applause of the world, though 
he was the most brilliant man of his age, found life 
not worth the candle, and the reason was because 
he expected to find happiness and peace simply 
through getting. His whole theory of life was to 
get. He was to get money. He was to gather wis- 
dom. He was to collect gold and silver vessels. 
Musicians were to play to him. Servants were to 
wait on him. Trees were to bloom and bear their 
fruit for him. And he was to be a great kingly 
sponge that was to absorb the beauty and the fra- 
grance and the glory of the world. Well, he had 
his chance, and he sucked himself full, and said 
when he was done, ^'Therefore I hated life ; because 
the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous 
unto me : for all is vanity and vexation of spirit." 



166 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Evidently life is not worth living to a man who 
simply lives to get. 

isTow let us take the other tack. Paul also was a 
brilliant man. The most sneering infidel has never 
denied Paul brains. The biggest brain of his day 
was in the head that fell on N'ero^s block in Kome 
as a martyr for Christ. But before that occurred 
Paul was an old man, and for many years he 
lighted up towns and cities and continents with 
the fire of his great soul and the glory of his wit- 
ness to Jesus Christ. Paul lived a very different 
life from that of Solomon. Prom the day on the 
road to Damascus when he had that wonderful 
vision of Jesus and heard Christ say, ^^Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to 
kick against the pricks," and Paul, answering, 
said, ^Tord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" he 
had carried his life in his hand every day. He 
knew he would never die in his bed. I suppose in 
his younger manhood he had expected an early 
martyrdom. He had never hoped that he would 
be permitted to bear testimony to his divine Lord 
for so long a time. His life was full of constant 
excitement and interest. He went from one land 
to another preaching the Gospel. He met with 
much abuse and obloquy and shame. He was often 
mobbed. Again and again he was stoned in the 



IS LIFE WORTH THE CANDLE ? 167 

street and in the public square until lie was carried 
away for dead. He was often imprisoned and put 
in the dungeon. His back was scarred with many 
a stroke from the public whipping-lash. At Ephe- 
sus they made him fight with beasts like a gladia- 
tor. He was shipwrecked. Almost every possible 
indignity and hardship that could come to a man 
had come to him. At the time he wrote these words 
which I have selected as his testimony to stand 
over against that of Solomon he was probably in 
N^ero's dungeon in Rome. I well remember one 
warm summer day in Rome when I went down 
into that dark underground pit where it is believed 
Paul was imprisoned and where he wrote these 
words. It was a cold, damp place, and I thought, 
as I shivered, of what Paul said in the closing of 
his letter to Timothy, "The cloak that I left at 
Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with 
thee." When Paul wrote these words to Timothy 
he knew that his time on earth was very short. He 
had no doubt about the death he was to die. He 
says : "I am ready to be offered.'' And yet, having 
lived a life without the ministry of money or of 
luxury or of worldly comfort, having known much 
of sorrow and hardship and pain, being at the very 
moment in a dungeon and looking forward to being 
beheaded, Paul reviews his life and declares it to 



168 THE GEEAT POETEAITS 0¥ THE BIBLE 

have been a great success. How splendid liis 
words : ^^I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that 
day." 

ISTow, what has made such a difference between 
the life of Paul and that of Solomon ? How does it 
come that in spite of all the adversities of life Paul 
is not vexed with it, but delighted ? The answer 
is very simple and plain. Paul has looked upon 
life not as a place for getting, but as a place for 
giving. He has not spent his life in seeking for 
men to minister to him and to bless him, but he 
has spent his life ministering to others and bring- 
ing blessings to his fellow-men. Throughout his 
whole life, since in his youth he gave his heart to 
Christ, he has never come in touch with man or 
woman but he has done them good. In prison or 
out, to every man who came near him he has im- 
parted the good news about Jesus and brought to 
him the benediction of heaven. Like his Master 
he has not been ministered to, but he has ministered 
to everyone within his reach. The result is that 
he looks back over his life and finds that though it 
has been a fight, it has been a good fight, and though 
he has had the blow and the abuse and the cross to 



IS LIFE WOETH THE CAW^DLE ? 



169 



bear, his heart has been full of joy; and his eye 
glows as he sees the crown of righteousness with 
which his Lord will reward him in heaven. Paul 
found life worth the candle. He had accepted it as 
a precious trust, and he had rejoiced in it, and 
came to take his departure from the world with 
supreme courage and joy, going as a great victor. 

It only remains for us to ask which one of these 
great examples we are following. Follow Solomon 
and live your life on the principle of getting, indif- 
ferent to the claims of God, careless of the claims 
of your fellow-men, seeking only for your own 
gratification, whether it be for education, or for 
power, or for wealth, or for sensual pleasure, and 
you will come to Solomon's end. You may laugh 
now and say, as people sometimes do, ^^I care noth- 
ing for religion, I live just to have a good time, 
and yet I am as happy as the day is long." That 
is all very well for the moment, but the day will 
come — and it will come infinitely sooner than you 
expect — when you will sing a different song. Any 
one of a dozen things that might happen at any 
moment, and which are entirely beyond your power 
to prevent, would still all the laughter on your lips 
and take all the hope out of your heart and all the 
lightness out of your step. Hear my warning — 
nay, not my warning, but God's warning, that there 



170 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

is no peace to the soul which gives itself to selfish 
gratification and refuses obedience to God. 

On the other hand^ if we will follow Paul's ex- 
ample, and as the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us 
as our Saviour lift our eyes to him with reverence 
and say, as Paul did, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to dof' and follow on with obedience in the 
footsteps of Jesus, doing God's will, seeking to 
bless our fellow-men in the name of our Lord, 
whether we be rich or poor, whether life be soft 
with blessed things or hard with severe trials, there 
shall be an inner peace, there shall be a soul joy, 
there shall be a hope and a faith so triumphant 
that, like Paul, we shall call it a good fight and a 
glorious victory. 



OWE ALTOGETHER LOVELY PERSOI^ALITY iTl 



CHAPTEK XV 
The One Altogether Lovely Person"ality 

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him 
that hringeth good tidings. — Isaiah lii, 7. 
H© is altogether lovely. — Solomon's Song v, 16. 

This first passage had, no doubt, direct refer- 
ence to those who brought the news of the decision 
of King Cyras to release the captive Jews who had 
been held prisoners in Babylon — those homesick 
sonls who had hung their harps upon the willows 
by the river because their grief was too bitter for 
melody. The mountain paths were watched for 
messengers who should bring the good news of the 
return of these loved exiles. 

How anxiously in those days, before railroads 
or newspapers or telegraph, when news must be 
transmitted by foot messengers or by men on horse- 
back or camel, would the runner be watched for! 
If the messenger brought bad news he would be 
associated with sorrow and gloom in the minds of 
the watchers. 

Once David was watching at Mahanaim for the 



172 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

fate of the battle against Absalom. The old king 
watched anxiously as he sat between the gates, and 
the watchman from the roof over his head saw a 
man running alone, and cried and told David. 
David answered, "If he be alone, there is tidings 
in his mouth." A little later the watchman saw 
another man running, and called out, "Behold an- 
other man running alone." And David said, "He 
also bringeth tidings.'' 

And as the first man drew nearer the watchman 
called and said, "The running of the foremost is 
like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok." 
The king said, "He is a good man, and cometh with 
good tidings.'' When the runner came near enough 
he shouted, "All is well !" and fell upon his face. 
Then David's first question was, "Is the young 
man Absalom safe?" It was the father showing 
out above the king. And Ahimaaz parried the 
question. Then the second runner, Cushi, came 
near enough to shout his news, and cried aloud, 
"Tidings, my lord the king: for the Lord hath 
avenged thee this day of all them that rose u]3 
against thee." And again David asked, "Is the 
young man Absalom safe ?" But Cushi was made 
of sterner metal than Ahimaaz, and he replied, 
"The enemies of my lord the king, and all that 
rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that 



ONE ALTOGETHEE LOVELY PERSONALITY 173 

young man is." And then David went up broken- 
hearted to that chamber over the gate, and cried, 
^^O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! 
would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my 
son, my son !" 

David was perhaps never able to look at those 
messengers again without a shudder. But how 
different the fate of those who brought the good 
news of the return of the captives to Jerusalem! 
^sTo one would ever see them without gratitude, 
and none would seem so beautiful to the fond popu- 
lace as those swift runners who bore the good tid- 
ings over the mountains. 

Paul uses this figure to describe those who bring 
the glad tidings of peace and salvation from God 
in the Gospel. In his letter to the Eomans he says : 
"How shall they preach, except they be sent? as 
it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them 
that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad 
tidings of good things !" 

While it may be properly applied to all ministers 
or laymen who carry the message of divine love to 
anxious hearts, it surely has its supreme applica- 
tion to that one perfectly lovely character, our 
Redeemer and Lord, "who was rich, and yet for 
our sakes became poor." Here, then, is our theme : 
The beautiful Christ coming as the bearer of good 



174: THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

tidings over all the mountains that are in the way 
to our sad and lonely world. It is a world that 
sorely needs good news and good cheer. 

Christ comes over the mountains of our sin. 
It is a sinful world. The consciousness of sin is 
among all people. Men have made long pilgrim- 
ages and have worn out their lives trying to find 
freedom from sin. Mothers have cast their chil- 
dren into the Ganges hoping to make an offering 
for sin. But Christ is the only one who has come 
with the good news that every poor sinner in the 
world may freely have complete forgiveness and 
cleansing. How beautiful upon the mountains of 
our sin is the Christ who comes saying to us, ^^God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." How beautiful 
is the Christ who says in his very last words to 
men, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And 
let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that 
is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely." It is messages like this 
that come to us only through Jesus Christ. And 
we are able to come in his name and say to every 
poor sinner in the words of hope that Isaiah caught 
as he looked forward to the day of Christ's coming, 
"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 



OITE ALTOGETHER LOVELY PEESONALITY 175 

white as snow; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool." 

It is a tired world. The multitudes of men are 
weary and overworked in body and in mind. How 
beautiful the Christ who comes over the mountains 
of our weariness with the sweet offer of rest ! Hear 
his gracious words, ^^Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto 
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is 
light." The workingmen of the world never had 
such a friend as Jesus Christ. Christ has filled the 
world with hope. His name has more power to-day 
in obtaining justice and mercy for tired and over- 
worked men and women, a thousandfold more 
power, than any other name in the world. Christ 
understood that this was to be his mission. The 
text of his first sermon was one of the prophecies 
about himself which says : "The Spirit of the Lord 
God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed 
me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath 
sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim 
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the 
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of ven- 
geance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 



176 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

to appoint unto tliem tliat mourn in Zion, to give 
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness." 

Christ comes over the mountain of our sorrow 
and our trouble. It is a sorrowful world. The 
tears are flowing in every land. Even behind smil- 
ing faces many a heart is aching. The world is 
full of sadness, but the beautiful Christ conies over 
the mountains of our sorrow and trouble to bring 
good tidings of heavenly comfort. If we could 
gather together all the worry and sorrow and 
trouble in this congregation what a mountain it 
would make ! There are financial worries, not only 
of those who are threatened with great losses, but 
of those who find themselves unable to meet the re- 
quirements of those who are near and dear to them 
— the men who cannot do for their wives or their 
children what their love prompts, work hard as 
they may; the sad misunderstandings that come 
sometimes when the last effort has been put forth. 
God only knows how much of sorrow and worry 
and trouble comes from just such sources. 

Then there is the worry about health. Few of 
us are entirely well. Most of us are patching up 
the body against coming disaster. Some have had 
their death warrant and know they cannot live 



ONE ALTOGETHER LOVELY PERSONALITY 177 

long. Some are harassed and perplexed by illness 
they do not understand. 

Then there is the sadder trouble about loved 
ones ; their health, or their morals ; what a fruitful 
source of sorrow to a loving father or a loving 
mother or friend. 

Then there is the deep heart-loneliness that some 
souls know, which is perhaps one of the bitterest 
sorrows in the world. Father and mother and near 
relatives are gone, and the man or the woman 
stands alone feeling that in the great world full of 
people he or she is all alone. People surrounded 
by relatives and who make friends easily cannot 
understand what it means to be in a great city full 
of people and feel that whether one lives or dies no 
one cares. Such loneliness is heartbreaking. 

'Now, all these sorrows are real sorrows, and no 
doubt every one of them is represented here. I 
want to point you to the beautiful Christ who 
comes over the mountains of sorrow and offers com- 
fort and sympathy and divine tenderness in the 
midst of just such trouble as yours. Do you ask, 
*^What does he know about financial worry V Why, 
my brother, it was he who said, "Foxes have holes, 
and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of 
man hath not where to lay his head." 

Do you ask, "What does he know about failing 
12 



178 THE GREAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

health or approaching death Do you forget that 
Christ knew he was walking straight to the cross 
and that he was to die a shameful and awful death, 
and yet went toward it with a sweet and gentle 
face and a strong heart, that he might obtain salva- 
tion for you ? 

Do you ask, "What does he know about sorrow 
for loved ones Do you suppose he did not sorrow 
over Judas, or Peter? Surely never heart was 
wrung like the heart of Jesus for those on whom 
he had poured out the wealth of his love. 

Do you ask, "What can he know about the loneli- 
ness I suffer How can you ask that, when you 
remember that when he was arrested the disciples 
all forsook him and fled, and he bore the agony and 
the insult all alone ? Under the weight of that 
great burden he cried out, "My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me O, if there be anybody 
in the vast universe of God that can sympathize 
with a lonely soul it is Jesus Christ! And he is 
able to come to you in any sorrow and give you 
comfort. Even good old Job, bereft of his children, 
stripped of his property, forsaken by his wife, and 
afflicted with a horrible disease, declares that God 
gave him "songs in the night." Open your heart 
to the beautiful Christ ! 

Christ comes over the mountain of death. It is 



ONE ALTOGETHER LOVELY PEESOISTALITY 179 

a dying world. Our little ones die, but Jesus 
comes, saying, "In heaven their angels do always 
behold the face of my Father." Our friends, our 
noble youth, our heroic workers, our holy saints 
die at our side, but Jesus comes over the mountain, 
saying to us, "If a man believe in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live." 

"Once they were mourners here below, 

And poured out cries and tears; 
They wrestled hard, as we do now, 

"With sins, and doubts, and fears. 

"I ask them whence their victory came: 

They, with united breath, 
Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb, 

Their triumph to his death. 

"They marked the footsteps that he trod; 

His zeal inspired their breast; 
And, following their incarnate God, 

Possess the promised rest." 

We face the certainty of death ourselves. But 
Jesus comes over the mountains, saying, "In my 
Father's house are many mansions: ... I will 
come again, and receive you unto myself; that 
where I am, there ye may be also." 

A lady who was visiting her friend was talking 
about the other world, when she said : "We know 
but little about the other side." Her friend said 



180 THE GEE AT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

to her : "You know when we invited you to visit us, 
and you came. When you received the invitation 
you had no idea about our home, the scenery, sur- 
roundings, or country. Indeed, you had never 
seen any place by comparison with which you could 
form any clear idea of it. But this you did know 
— that you would be most joyfully received with 
open arms, and, knowing this, you were fully satis- 
fied. The scenery would come after the welcome." 
And so every Christian knows that there is a joy- 
ous welcome waiting for him on the heavenly 
shore. When we regard death as the gateway into 
heaven, and our journey there a going home, it 
takes all the bitterness out of it. 

A traveler tells how he was on a little steamer 
on the river Volga. A young Russian officer was 
on board. He had plenty of money and seemed 
in excellent health. The scenery aroimd was beau- 
tiful, but for all that the officer looked sad and was 
silent. He was going from home and friends, far 
off into Siberia. A little while afterward the 
traveler returned to Moscow with another Russian 
officer. They had to travel in a miserable plight, 
hurried over rough roads in a cart. The scenery 
was dull; the weather was bitterly cold; but that 
officer was exulting in buoyancy and delight. He 
was hastening to bear the news of a great victory 



ONE ALTOGETHEE LOVELY PERSON"ALITT 181 

and to be decorated with an honorable reward. So 
if we give our hearts to Christ, and enter into lov- 
ing fellowship with him, we shall be strong to bear 
life's hardships; have victory over our sorrows; 
look into the face of death with a smile, because 
we shall know that at the end of the journey there 
is joy and triumph. 



182 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEK XVI 

A Bad Affi]s^ity which Spoiled a Bright Man 

And Solomon made aflanity with Pharaoh king of 
Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her 
into the city of David. — 1 Kings iii, 1. 

I remember in my boyhood that a great bridge 
which had been my admiration because of its splen- 
did appearance suddenly went down, and my 
father told me that it was because in building it 
one defective timber had been placed in the frame. 
The strain happened to come just on that place, and 
that one weak stick went down and with it all the 
splendid structure. Our text tells the story of the 
beginning of the ruin of Solomon. It was no sud- 
den thing, this overthrow of Solomon. It began 
far back in his youth in that one bad affinity. 
Pharaoh had nothing in common with the Hebrews. 
He did not believe in their God. He did not be- 
lieve in their religion. He had no sympathy with 
their purposes in any way. In the very nature 
of the case there could be no real harmony between 
them. But Solomon wanted to strengthen his gov- 
ernment by making friends everywhere, and he 



AFFINITY WHICH SPOILED A MAN 183 

made a friend too many. Enemies are sometimes 
much more valuable than friends. Voltaire said 
a very brilliant thing when he declared that if 
God would take care of his friends he would charge 
himself with his enemies. His spirit in that, state- 
ment was probably not reverent, but there is in it 
a great vein of truth. A bad friendship is far 
worse than an open enemy, for a bad friend gets 
inside the armor and can strike home to the heart. 
There is nothing so insidious, nothing so danger- 
ous, as an evil friendship. A close alliance with 
one who is utterly opposed in his or her very char- 
acter and personality to our own ideal of righteous- 
ness can never fail to do us harm. Gradually, if 
we yield to the affinity, it undermines the founda- 
tions of our own faith and destroys our power of 
resistance against evil. There are many remark- 
able illustrations of this truth in the Bible. 

Samson furnishes us with the picture of a strong 
man ruined by a bad affinity. He was a child of 
promise; was reared in a most devout and godly 
home, and came up to manhood with the presence 
of the Spirit of God upon him. There was every 
reason to suppose that Samson would leave a name 
in history second to none for his service to his race. 
But instead he left a name which is of value only 
as an awful example of what bad alliances can do 



184 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

for a man. In his first young strength Samson 
blundered by straying outside of his own circle 
and people and finding his affinity among the young 
folks of Timnath, who were wicked and godless. 
Against the protest of his father and mother he 
made a marriage which, from the very first, was 
like a millstone around his neck to drag him down. 
We would suppose that one such experience would 
have been enough to teach him wisdom; but later 
he made his last and his fatal affinity with Delilah. 
He had no idea whatever of allowing her to be his 
ruin. He jealously guarded the secret of his 
strength and was proud of his power and leadership 
among his people. In that pride he thought he was 
safe enough in making friends where he pleased. 
He knew she desired to learn his secret, and he was 
just as sure he would never betray it to her. Still, 
he made friends with her. There was something 
about her that was singularly fascinating to him. 
'No doubt he said to himself : "What is the use of 
my being so strict? Here is a most fascinating 
woman. There is not in all Israel a woman so 
bright, so witty, so full of life, and after my labors 
I need a little latitude in the way of recreation. 
Of course she is not of my religion. I suppose that 
down at the bottom she is true to the Philistines, 
but she amuses me and affords me a great deal of 



AFFIIS^ITY WHICH SPOILED A MAN 185 

harmless pleasure. I shall take good care to keep 
the upper hand." So it was that Samson reasoned, 
and so he acted. When she begged for the secret 
of his strength he playfully told her one falsehood 
after another, only to bewilder her by leaving her 
the butt of the joke. But as time went on Samson 
was drawn into ever deeper sympathy and affection 
for the daring creature who was tempting him to 
his ruin, and at last he did what he never had in- 
tended to do and told her the truth. He opened 
his very heart to her, and she held the fortress. 
He did not even know the time when his strength 
went from him ; he was not conscious that God had 
really departed from him till afterward. But he 
was doomed. His bad affinity put him in the power 
of his enemies, his old age was blackened with sor- 
row, and he died the death of a suicide. How many 
there are who are following in the example of these 
men, Solomon and Samson ! 

A young man came to me the other day, a big, 
strong, broad-shouldered fellow, and with tear-wet 
eyes said: "The mistake of my life was this, that 
when I came to 'New York city I did not make the 
right kind of friends. I was brought up in a 
Christian family and all my friends in my boy- 
hood and young manhood were in the church and 
among religious people, and I never really intended 



186 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

to get away from that class of people; but when I 
came to the city I had a feeling that I would like to 
see something of the world outside. So the first 
friends I made here were among those who cared 
nothing for the church. To them the theater and 
gay and giddy associations were the most im- 
portant things in the world. They spent their time 
with cards and parties, and I learned a good many 
things that I had always been taught to shun. 
Those friends have been my ruin. I have learned 
to drink. I have learned to play cards for money. 
I have aroused in me every evil thing, and I can 
see now that it has all come about because I made 
the wrong kind of friends.'' 'No doubt I speak to 
some, both men and women, who could say the 
same thing. E'othing ever damages us so much 
as a bad affinity. 

We have suggested to us in the story of our text 
the important fact that the making of one bad 
affinity always opens the door for others. Solomon 
was a very wise man and a man of great force of 
character. He had no idea whatever of being led 
to give up his religion and to go off after false gods 
as an idol worshiper when he made his alliance 
with the daughter of Pharaoh. But the alliance 
with Pharaoh gave him such prestige and seemed 
to so strengthen him among the nations that he soon 



AFFINITY WHICH SPOILED A MAN 187 

found another opportunity for a similar alliance, 
and it went on and on until lie had made these 
friendships with the Moabites, the Ammonites, the 
Edomites, the Zidonians, and the Hittites. Eor a 
time Solomon maintained his strength, had his own 
way, and no one could see any difference in him. 
But all the while the change was going on. And 
these women who hated the true God and were true 
to the false religion of their own people and country 
were having their influence on the heart and the 
mind of the great king. As he grew older the 
change that had been going on in him all the time 
ever since he made that first bad affinity came to 
the front in his conduct. He began to build altars 
to idols. He built an altar to Ashtoreth, the goddess 
of the Zidonians, and then he built an altar for 
Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and then one 
for Molech, the false god of the Ammonites. And 
finally he went the rounds, until he had built an 
altar to the alleged god or goddess of every false 
religion with whose worshipers he had made an 
affinity. Thus it was that in having many gods he 
lost the true God out of his heart and his life. In 
coming to feel that all religions were alike, he lost 
the true religion and became a man without God 
and without hope in the world. 

Kow, nothing could have persuaded Solomon to 



188 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

believe that he would ever have acted in this way 
at the first. It was the dangerous affinities that he 
made that led him on step by step until his power 
or resistance was broken down ; until his clear per- 
ception of truth was blinded; until he no longer 
had the power to do the right when he saw it. 

You may see this same lesson in the case of that 
Herod who heard the plain preaching of John the 
Baptist with much interest. There was something 
in Herod that admired the courage and the heroism 
of J ohn. In his heart he intended to set him free. 
John had plainly told him that he was a sinner, 
and Herod knew it, and intended to set the prophet 
at liberty, with honor. The only reason he did not 
do this was the bad affinity which he had made. 
He was living in an unholy alliance with his 
brother Philip's wife. It was that deadly sin that 
held him back, and under the influence of that bad 
affinity Herod later added a cowardly murder to 
his other crimes. Though he hated to do it and 
did not want to do it he killed John under the 
domination of that affinity. Again and again have 
I urged men and women to repent and have found 
them, though conscience-smitten and broken-heart- 
ed on account of their sins, and longing for salva- 
tion, yet immovable so far as any real action was 
concerned, because of some one deadly sin like 



AFFIMTY WHICH SPOILED A MAN 189 

Herod's that held them in its damning grip. It is 
one of the terrible things that a gnilty friendship, 
an ungodly passion, an unholy love, causes the 
people in such affinity to sting each other to death. 
I have no doubt that the sister-in-law of Herod 
loved him ; perhaps she would have fought to the 
death and given her life to have served him. And 
yet her guilty love was more ruinous to him than 
any open enemy. Hear, I pray you, the warning 
of God's Word. It is a warning that is shouted 
from the housetops of everyday life. A bad affin- 
ity, no matter how attractive, no matter how seduc- 
tive, no matter how brilliant, is the beginning of 
hell, here and hereafter. 

Sometimes men and women, having been caught 
in the meshes of an evil affinity, break from it 
through God's power and mercy and are saved. 
This word "affinity" is used in the Bible only 
three times. One of the other cases is in the 
story of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who on one 
occasion made an affinity with the brilliant but 
wicked Ahab, king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was a 
good man, but Ahab was brilliant and full of se- 
duction, and he drew the good king into a friend- 
ship from which he escaped only by the skin of 
his teeth. When Ahab had drawn Jehoshaphat 
into a joint war with him he undertook to save 



190 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

himself in battle by sacrificing his friend. But 
Ahab failed and was killed. Jehoshaphat went 
home a very much wiser man. On his arrival 
home, Jehu, his private chaplain, went out to 
meet him, and bravely said to him, "Shouldest 
thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the 
Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before 
the Lord.'' Jehoshaphat was wise enough to receive 
this as God's message, and he repented of his sins 
and prepared his heart to seek God, and God for- 
gave him and gave him peace. I trust there are 
some who will follow that example now. If you 
have been led away into evil associations, and you 
now see your sin, do not go on until it is too late, 
but break away now from these entangling alli- 
ances with those who are unfriendly to Christ and, 
repenting of your sins, prepare your heart to seek 
God. If you will do that, Christ will set you free. 
But I know some one will say, "That is easier 
said than done. I am willing enough to be a 
Christian, but I cannot separate myself from the 
associations that are destroying me. I am en- 
tangled in the net on every side." I^o doubt Zac- 
chaeus thought the same way, but after he had 
talked to Jesus face to face he made a clean sweep 
of the whole thing and received pardon. That 
poor fellow whom the demons controlled was badly 



AFFINITY WHICH SPOILED A MAN" 191 

tangled up with dangerous affinities, but one morn- 
ing with Jesus set him free from them all. 

Jesus can cut the snarl straight through with one 
sharp thrust of his sword of truth. Do not wait 
to study out how it can be done. Bring it before 
God, and with repentant heart, at the mercy 
seat, throw yourself as a sinner upon God's grace 
and trust him to set you free from the wicked 
entanglements of sin, I am sure you cannot do 
it in your own strength. 'No doubt the more you 
try the more you will become entangled, but I am 
just as sure, on the other hand, that if you sur- 
render your whole heart and soul to do the will of 
God and take Christ at his word he will sa,ve you 
from yourself and from all the evil associations 
which have been your danger and your bane. 



192 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XVII 

The Stoey of Five Daggees and Theie Victim 
Let him alone. — Hosea iv, 17. 

We have in our text, as indeed through the whole 
book of Hosea, a people spoken of as though they 
were a single individual. Ephraim is talked about 
as though one man incarnated all the sin and folly 
of an entire tribe and upon his head fell all the 
punishment of wrongdoing. And it is as though it 
were to one person that I wish to use the text as a 
message for us. This is perfectly justifiable, for 
what is wrong for one is wrong for the multitude, 
and what is wicked for the nation is wicked for the 
individual. 

We have here the picture of a man who has been 
turned adrift, as one might cut loose from an old 
hulk at sea. It has been tried and nothing can be 
done with it. It cannot be guided ; it is only tossed 
here and there by the winds and the waves; it 
carries no cargo ; it gets nowhere, and after a little 
it will go to the bottom. Let it alone. Henceforth 
it will be only a derelict, a thing that other vessels 
will fear more than all else — a thing to be shunned 



THE STORY OP FIVE DAGGERS 193 

or destroyed. It is very sad when that is said of 
a ship, but how much sadder when it is said of a 
man — a man made in the image of God; a man 
with all the powers that belong to human nature; 
a man gifted with the wondrous capabilities of 
thought, of memory, of the power to reason and 
plan; a man with the power to love, to hope, and 
to believe; a man with the power to worship and 
aspire; a man with a soul more delicately con- 
structed than any musical instrument on earth, one 
capable of being aroused to those noble passions 
that bring him into fellowship with angels and into 
harmony with the grand purposes of God. How 
terrible it is to find such a man discouraged, dis- 
heartened, turned astray, his moral instincts blunt- 
ed, his baser passions in control, his whole nature 
debased and gone wrong ! How fearful to find such 
a man with his will-power debauched until the 
power to do good has been broken down, until he 
is only a drifting hulk, battered and beaten by the 
waves of passion and appetite and lust! How 
awful it is to find such a man drifting every 
whither and yet achieving no great end, the disap- 
pointment of men, the grief of angels, thwarting 
God, until at last even the heavenly Father says, 
"Let him alone!" 

I am sure we could not study anything more 
13 



194: THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

intensely interesting to every one of us than 
the question suggested by such a sight. How 
is it that a man may be so utterly overthrown 
and defeated? This book of Hosea answers that 
question. 

There was in Ephraim, as there is in every one 
of us, in early life a desire to be good. God does 
not leave himself without a witness in the heart of 
any man, and Ephraim had aroused within his 
soul again and again the instinct of worship and 
the desire to obey God. But the first dagger which 
pierced the religious life of Ephraim was that of 
indecision. Hosea says of him, "Ephraim is a 
cake not turned.'^ That is a very "striking sentence. 
The picture is a homely one, showing an old- 
fashioned fire with a woman cooking over it, long 
before the days of stoves. The cake is put over 
the coals, and then something else which seems to 
be of more importance attracts her attention and 
the cake is forgotten. The time passes when it 
ought to have been turned over, and when the 
housewife comes back to it again it is too late. On 
one side the cake is burned black and hard, ready 
to fall to ashes under the touch, while on the other 
it is only dough ; so it is good for nothing on either 
side. On one side it is burned, and on the other 
side it is raw. Are there not some among us to-day 



THE STOEY OF FIVE DAGGEES 



195 



who are in that same condition ? You have given 
yourselves with such intensity to the things of this 
world that on the side of business or pleasure you 
are burned and charred ; but on the other side, the 
side of your higher nature, the side of the spiritual 
life, in all those things that mean the development 
of the soul, that bring a man into communion with 
God, so that prayer is the natural atmosphere he 
breathes, so that lofty thinking and holy imagina- 
tion spring unbidden into the sky of his brain, so 
that noble purposes and generous words and sym- 
pathetic deeds gush forth with spontaneity from 
the heart — on that side the cake is raw and un- 
cooked. There has been a lack of decision and pur- 
pose in your attitude toward God. Your con- 
science has spoken to you, you have been aroused, 
but you have never given yourself to the ques- 
tion of obedience to God with sufficient decision 
of character to bring about anything vital and 
permanent. 

Another dagger that left its bleeding wound in 
Ephraim, very much like the last, was a lack of 
courage. There was a moral cowardice about him 
that made him fail to do duty at the right time. 
Hosea says, ^^Ephraim also is like a silly dove with- 
out heart." There is a picture for you! — ^like a 
silly dave that, pursued by the hawk, will not fly 



196 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

at once to the dovecote, where it would be entirely 
safe, but goes fluttering foolishly about, from one 
tree to another, ducking under this shrub and that, 
until the cruel beak of the hawk tears its neck and 
the daggerlike talons meet in its heart. How often 
men and women are like that ! When they become 
aware of the danger of sin, when it is pushed home 
to their intelligence that their sin, like a bird of 
prey, is pursuing them with sharp beak and cruel 
talons, they act with all the folly of a silly dove. 
There is only one way of wisdom in such a case, 
and that is to fly straight to the dovecote of God. 
God's ark of salvation has windows always open 
for the weakest and most sinful of his children 
when pursued by sin, and those who fly there are 
never denied admittance. But how often instead 
of flying to the mercy seat for protection the sinner 
tries to hide under still other sins ! He seeks am- 
bush in business or in pleasure or in ambition or 
in some self-righteousness of his own, only to be 
sought out and destroyed. Do not, I beg of you, 
follow the example of Ephraim. Straight to the 
dovecote of God's mercy is the way of wisdom. 

Another dagger which wounded Ephraim sorely 
was that he set up Ms own judgment and his own 
self-will against God's law. Hosea says of him, ^'I 
have written to him the great things of my law, but 



THE STORY OP FIVE DAGGEES 197 



they were counted as a strange thing." How many 
times we see that now ! Men try to twist the Bible 
into strange interpretations in order to cover their 
own sins. Whenever I hear a man say that he has 
ceased to believe in some great fundamental truth 
of God's Word that goes to the heart of things about 
sin and righteousness I at once become suspicious 
that the man has a reason for not wanting to be^ 
lieve that truth; for one of the deadliest daggers 
with which the devil assails the soul of any man 
is to get a man to try to hide from his sin by a 
make-believe that it is not a sin, or that, if it is a 
sin, God will not punish it. How different any 
particular sin looks to a man after he has com- 
mitted it himself ! Before, when he saw it in an- 
other, it was ugly and loathsome and revolting. 
There was not one beautiful thing about it to clothe 
its horrid ugliness. But after a while, when his 
own feet were caught in the net, and he yielded to 
the deadly fascination and himself became a sinner 
just like the neighbor upon whom he had looked 
with such horror, how it was all changed ! ^sTow he 
sets all his wits to work trying to make excuses for 
his sin. He forgets that his sin is just as loath- 
some in other eyes as it used to be to him. He con- 
jures up reasons why his sin is different from that 
of others until ofttimes he fondly imagines that it 



198 THE GEEAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

is different and that the circumstances which were 
about him forced him into the sin, so that he could 
not help it, and therefore he is not responsible for 
it. He actually comes to imagine that a loving and 
just God will not hold him accountable for it. So 
he reasons until, when he reads occasionally the 
sharp, clear, cutting words of the Ten Command- 
ments and comes to the one commandment that 
cuts like a two-edged sword clean through his own 
sin, leaving a wound that would let the very life- 
blood out of him, he rebels ; but, strangely, he re- 
bels not at his sin, but at the law itself. God's law 
seems a strange thing to him, a thing that is not 
right, and it must mean something else. 0, how 
sin does blind men's souls ! How sin does destroy 
men's moral intelligence ! How it does becloud the 
clearness of their vision! But, O my friend, I 
plead with you to see in the doom of Ephraim the 
illustration of my message that, however stunted 
your moral nature, however distorted your con- 
science, however blinded your moral intelligence, 
though the deteriorating process go on until you 
may call evil good and good evil, it does not alter 
God's law and does not alter the truth, ^Whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 

Another dagger, a dagger with perfumed blade 
and twining flowers about the hilt, but still none the 



THE STOEY OF FIVE DAGGEES 



199 



less deadly than the others^ found its way to the 
vitals of Ephraim. We may call it the dagger of 
transient emotions. Hosea, speaking of it, says, 
"O, Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? . . . 
For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as 
the early dew it goeth away." How many there 
are who are deceiving themselves because ever and 
anon they are stirred with religious emotion. I 
have had men say to me, "It is impossible that I 
should be finally overthrown by sin and die unre- 
pentant, for I have such frequent religious desires, 
I am so easily aroused to see wrong in myself, I 
am so quick to be sorry for an evil deed, and no 
heart is more easily touched than mine at the 
thought of the sufferings of my Saviour in my be- 
half." I have had men, and women, too, again 
and again talk to me like that, who were still going 
on in sinful lives and were really without God and 
without hope in the world. ITow, there is abso- 
lutely no value in such religious emotion. Multi- 
tudes of people had emotions like that who have 
gone on until God has said of them as he said of 
Ephraim, "Abandon him to his fate! Let him 
alone !" Indeed, one who is in that situation is in 
the greatest possible danger of being finally lost. 
He is frittering away his religious capabilities. 
The old preachers used to talk about people becom.- 



200 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

ing ^^Gospel-liardened.'' I suppose what they 
meant by that was this, that men and women who 
often hear the messages of the Gospel, whose con- 
sciences are frequently aroused to rebuke them for 
their sins, whose hearts are often made tender by 
pictures of the sufferings and dying of Jesus Christ 
for their salvation, who yet do not repent, do not 
really forsake their sins and accept Christ as their 
Saviour, come at last to be like a sponge from 
which the moisture has all been squeezed. They 
are like the morning fog which is dispelled by the 
sun, because the sun drinks it up until there is 
nothing of it left. So there is no heart so hard as 
that which, having often been made tender, refuses 
to obey the call of God. I beg of you not to play 
fast and loose with your hearts. I beg of you to 
not play fast and loose with those capabilities for 
goodness which are now easily stirred into action 
by the divine message. These soul powers are God- 
given, and the possibilities of heaven are in them ; 
but to fritter them away and squander them means 
to have at last a barren and an abandoned soul, and 
that means hell. 

The last dagger, and that for which all the others 
had been preparing the way, was idolatry. Tran- 
sient religious emotions are gone. Trying to ex- 
cuse sin has ceased. The soul has turned away 



THE STOEY OE FIVE DAGGEES 



201 



from God. It has turned its back on God. He has 
given himself over to his idols. Self-indulgence 
has become his God. God is not in all his thoughts. 
And God says, ^'Let him alone, he is joined to his 
idols." 

IsTow, I am sure that the message I have been 
speaking, earnest and heart-searching as it has 
been, is God's message to some of you. Perhaps 
as you have listened your heart has been greatly 
depressed. You have felt with discouragement and 
with a sinking heart the sad effects of sin in your 
own soul and in your own life. And there could 
be no excuse for speaking as I have done, though it 
were God's truth, if it were not also true that there 
is not a man or a woman here, however sad they 
may be because of sin, who may not here and now 
renounce their sins and find in Jesus Christ, the 
Great Physician, a balm that will heal the wounds 
of these evil daggers which have pierced you so 
sorely. Yes, even though you feel that you have 
reached the last stage of rebellion against God, so 
that you seldom think whether your life pleases 
God or not, so that you have sometimes even been 
tempted to believe that God had abandoned you 
and left you alone to go your evil way ; yet I know 
that there is power in J esus Christ to cleanse your 
sins, to heal your wounds, and to begin in your 



202 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

heart a new and glorious life that shall grow 
brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Have 
yon ever seen a harbor where the tide rises and falls 
in great contrast? And do you remember how 
black and desolate it looked when the tide was out, 
and how helpless the vessels seemed, lying on their 
sides in the black mud ? And do you recall when 
the tide came in and pressed about them and lifted 
them up until they floated, and under the touch of 
captain and pilot and crew their steam awoke or 
their sails were spread, how they sped out across 
the ocean triumphant? It may be so with you. 
Winifred Iverson has spiritualized just such a 
scene as that in her little poem entitled "When 
the Tide Came In." 

"Black and foul the harbor lay, 
While no waves their way could win; 

But it gleamed, transformed and gay, 
When the tide came in. 

"Motionless the vessels lay 

Locked the harbor-mouth within; 
Stranded there, and thus to stay 

Till the tide came in. 

"All my life disordered lay 

Graceless and begrimed with sin; 
Oh, the change, that hour of day 

When God's tide flowed in! 



THE STORY OF FIVE DAGGERS 203 

"At its ease my small craft lay- 
Cramped a narrow space within; 

But it pulsed and sped away 
When God's tide flowed in, 

"Yea! the Holy Spirit came 

His renewings to begin; 
Leaving nothing quite the same^ — 

Thus God's tide flowed in!" 



204 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XVIII 

Ait Opeit-Air Preacher 

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones 
live? And I answered, 0 Lord God, thou knowest.— 
Ezekiel xxxvii, 3. 

Some of the greatest preaching that has ever 
been done in this world has been done in the open 
air. Peter and his friends won their great victory 
on the day of Pentecost, in which three thousand 
people were converted, in the open air. The Wes- 
leys, Whitefield, and the early circuit riders in 
America won their great triumphs in the fields or 
among the workingmen about the rock quarries or 
in the woods, where the multitudes gathered to- 
gether to hear their preaching. But not one of 
them ever had an audience like this, that filled a 
whole valley full with the congregation. 

Many people have faced sleepy audiences before 
now, and many have been the devices for awaken- 
ing them. Our pilgrim fathers had a tithing man 
who went around with a weapon for the purpose of 
arousing those who became drowsy under the long 
sermons. 

I heard Henry Ward Beecher say that at the 



AN OPEN-AIR PEEACHER 



205 



breaking out of the civil war a regiment came 
down from Maine. There was some misunder- 
standing about it, and no provision for sleeping 
quarters had been made for them. Mr. Beecher 
heard of it and invited them to Plymouth Church. 
The tired soldiers stretched out on the cushions in 
the pews. Mr. Beecher said he went in at mid- 
night and looked at them. Every pew in Plym- 
outh Church was full, but he said it was the first 
time he had ever seen all his congregation asleep at 
once. Here was a man, however, with all his con- 
gregation dead, and yet he awakened them and 
brought about remarkable victory. 

Let us recall the story: It was a vision which 
came to Ezekiel. The hand of the Lord came upon 
him and the Spirit of the Lord led him out into 
the midst of a great valley which was full, from 
one hillside to the other, of human bones, and he 
was led around about it that he might behold the 
vast multitude. A hideous multitude it was ! The 
flesh had wasted away from the skeletons. The 
very marrow had dried out of the bones, until the 
prophet was led to exclaim that they were "very 
dry'' indeed. As he looked out with horror upon 
this terrible scene his Divine Guide said to him, 
"Son of man, can these bones live?" and he an- 
swered, "0 Lord God, thou knowest.'' He was 



206 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

sure it was all helpless so far as he was concerned, 
but he would not limit the power of God. Then 
came the remarkable command: "Prophesy unto 
these bones, and say unto them, 0 ye dry bones, 
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord 
God unto these bones ; Behold, I will cause breath 
to enter into you, and ye shall live : and I will lay 
sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, 
and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, 
and ye shall live ; and ye shall know that I am the 
Lord." 

^^^ow that was a daring thing for a preacher to 
say to these dead bones. So far as his human judg- 
ment and reason could go it was absurd and full of 
folly. But the prophet believed in the super- 
natural God. He believed that all this natural 
world was God's creation, and that the God who 
made it could do what he pleased in it. So with 
loyal faith and courage he stood there and cried 
aloud to that multitude of dry and grinning skele- 
tons the heroic message which had been given him. 
The elfect was instantaneous and marvelous, for 
even as he spoke there was a great noise, and a 
rustle and a shaking through all that vast array, 
and the bones began to come together, each bone 
seeking its kindred bone in the body to which it 
belonged, and as the prophet watched, with wide- 



AlSr OPEIT-AIE PREACHER 



207 



staring eyes, still more wonderful sights met his 
gaze. For the sinews and flesh came upon these 
skeletons, and skin covered them, and then all was 
still and silent again. The change had been mar- 
velons. Instead of the valley full of bones there 
was a valley full of human forms as though men 
had suddenly died, for there was no life in them. 
They did not breathe or move. They were men, 
but without life. 

Then came the heavenly voice again, saying unto 
the prophet : "Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, 
son of man, and say to the wind. Thus saith the 
Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, 
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.'' 
And the prophet, still obedient to the divine voice, 
lifted his heart in prayer for the breath of life to 
come upon these dead forms, and as he prayed the 
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood 
up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 

'Now all this realistic vision was a dream, and 
God made known to Ezekiel what it meant. This 
valley full of dry bones was the whole nation of 
Israel. The people had lost hope. They were 
divided into factions and had lost all unity of 
spirit. There was no esprit de corps among them. 
All the zest and enthusiasm of their national life 
had dried out. They were like dead men, without 



208 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

life and without hope. And the Lord said to the 
prophet that through his preaching and prayer 
his Spirit should come again into the hearts of this 
dead people and they should he invigorated, in- 
spired, united, and led forth to conquest. 

Although the vision was given for this local pur- 
pose, it applies equally as well as a helpful figure 
for our study now. For that valley full of dry 
hones graphically illustrates the condition of men 
and women who, however alive and vital and pros- 
perous they may he in a physical or worldly sense, 
are dead to spiritual things. The Scripture de- 
clares that men who have not heen energized hy the 
regenerating Spirit of God are ^^dead in trespasses 
and in sins.'' That seems at first like an exagger- 
ated statement. But the more you study it the less 
you feel that it is heyond the fact. If the human 
hody is considered dead when it can no longer see 
or hear or speak or move, why should not the soul 
be considered dead when it has no eye for heavenly 
beauty, when it has no ear for the sweet melodies 
of the Spirit, no taste for the pleasures that rejoice 
God and angels and good men and women, when 
it has no appetite or zest for prayer or praise or 
for the service that brings one into fellowship with 
Jesus Christ? 

I think many deceive themselves by imagining 



AI^ OPEN-AIE PEEACHEK 



209 



that there is some love for the Lord in their 
hearts when down at the real current of life 
there is no real love for God or Christ in them. 
The poet well says ; 

"Say not 'I love the Lord' unless you find 

Within you, welling up by day and night, 
A love strong, full, and deep for humankind — 

Unless you find it always a delight 
To show the weary one a resting place — 

To show the doubting one faith's shining way — 
To show the erring one the door of grace — 

To show the sorrowing ones where they may lay 
Their broken hearts — the heaviness — the care — 

The grief, the agony, too sharp to bear. 

"When each man is the neighbor whom we love. 
According to the gracious measure of his word, 

Then may we lift our eyes to heaven above, 
And say with rapture sweet, 'I love the Lord.' " 

'Now it is the mission of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ to reach these dead souls and to rouse and 
awaken them to the life of the Spirit. One of the 
most wonderful things I have read recently is a 
letter by Helen Keller, that wonderful deaf and 
dumb and blind girl whose brilliant soul has been 
brought out through a tunnel along the single sense 
of touch. This letter was written for the celebra- 
tion of the one hundredth birthday of Dr. Samuel 
Gridley Howe, to whom the blind owe so much. 
14 



210 THE GEE AT POETRAITS OE THE BIBLE 

Helen Keller says: ^^I think only those who have 
escaped that death in life existence from which 
Lanra Bridgman was rescued can realize how 
isolated, how shronded in darkness, how cramped 
by its own impotence is a soul without thought or 
faith or hope. Words are powerless to describe 
the desolation of that prison." But how many 
there are for whom sin has built up walls more 
terrible than those which hedged in Helen Keller 
and Laura Bridgman, souls which, though they 
may live in bodies that are well-dressed and well- 
fed and have all their senses, are yet, to use Helen 
Keller's words, ^^shrouded in darkness," ^^cramped 
by their own impotence," and without faith or 
hope. 

It is our mission as Christians to come and 
prophesy, to proclaim the Word of God, to these 
dry bones. And as I speak are there not some who 
listen, it may be almost with offense and anger at 
the description so blunt and plain, who neverthe- 
less recognize this as a faithful portrait of their 
own condition ? You are alive to money-making, 
you are alive to the pleasures of the world, you are 
alive to the appetite for food and drink, you are 
alive to a thirst for human knowledge, you are 
awake and alert and alive to the beauty of nature 
and art, your ear is quick to discern beautiful 



A'N OPEN-AIE PEEACHER 



211 



sounds ; but when it comes to any real worship of 
the God who created you and who gives you your 
life and being and all the blessings you have, when 
it comes to any real love for the Christ who came 
from heaven and took upon himself human sor- 
rows and troubles and suffered shame and insult 
and died on the cross for you, when it comes to joy 
and delight in spiritual things, you are as dead 
as those dry bones in EzekieFs valley of vision. 
What shall awaken you? God has declared that 
he will do it by proclaiming his Word to you. God 
help us to be faithful in proclaiming it! It is a 
terrible thing to stand before men and women in 
sin and fail to tell them the whole truth. 

General Andrew Jackson once went to hear 
Peter Cartwright when that brave old backwoods 
hero was denouncing sin and proclaiming the 
solemn message of God that unless the sinner re- 
pented of his sins there was nothing for him but 
condemnation and woe. Some timorous soul was 
afraid General Jackson would be mad at such plain 
talk from the preacher, and so he pulled Cart- 
wright's coat tail and whispered to him that Gen- 
eral Jackson was in the congregation. Cartwright 
was never a man who whispered, and so he an- 
swered the whisper in a voice like thunder, "I don't 
care if he is. If General Jackson doesn't repent he 



212 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

will go to hell as quick as a Guinea negro !" There 
is one place in the world where men must stand on 
an equal footing, and that is where they listen to 
the Word of God from his faithful messenger. And 
so I cry to you, O men and women who have lost 
the appetite for spiritual things, who have lost your 
love for prayer and for the Bihle, who have no 
clear hope of heaven, who do not feel in your heart 
the immortal life throbbing with the certainty of 
immortality, who are not conscious that your sins 
are forgiven and that God's love in Jesus Christ 
cleanses you from the taint and love of sin, I cry 
unto you that God's Spirit is able to come upon 
you now and bring life to your dead souls. Repent, 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! 

This new life is not man-made nor man-given. 
It must come from heaven. The breath of the 
Holy Spirit alone can bring new life to the soul 
that is "dead in trespasses and in sins." I would 
to God that the heavenly breath might come now ! — 
come as it did to Cornelius and his household when 
Peter was preaching to them, so that Peter dis- 
cerned in the midst of his sermon that the Spirit 
of the living God had fallen upon his congregation 
and that they were quickened and aroused from all 
indifference and in their hearts were accepting 
Jesus Christ as their Saviour. So let the heavenly 



AN" OPEIT-AIE PREACHER 



213 



breath come now! — come like a breath from the 
ocean that kisses the cheek of the invalid and 
brings him back again to health and strength ; come 
as the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to 
the men who had been a part of the mob which 
murdered Jesus, showing them their sins until 
hell seemed to yawn at their feet and they cried 
out, ^^Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" 

Some who hear me have "crucified the Son of 
God afresh and put him to an open shame." You 
have known his love, yet you have turned away 
from him and left him as though he were not 
worthy of your affection. Some of you were reared 
by Christian parents. Your mother taught you to 
pray at her knee. Your whole life has been com- 
forted and cushioned by the blessings which Jesus 
brought to the world. And yet you live as indiffer- 
ent to it as though he had done nothing for you or 
for mankind. The Spirit of God has come to you 
again and again with healing on his wings, but you 
have turned from him and clung the closer to your 
sins. O brothers, sisters, will you go on in tiiis 
way ? Will you refuse every message ? Will you 
steel your heart against every heavenly influence ? 
God forbid! 

But perhaps some one says, "0, I long to be a 
Christian j but I dare not try. I am so surrounded, I 



214 THE GREAT PORTRxlITS OF THE BIBLE 

have formed such hahits, I am so out of touch with 
goodness and with good people, that I am helpless 
to make any change. But listen to what God says 
to Ezekiel about this nation which was like a valley 
of dry bones. He says that he will lead them out 
of the land of their enemies, he will take them out 
of their graves and will lead them into the land of 
promise. That is the message I bring you. Yield 
your hearts to the breath of heaven and God will 
lead you out of the land of your enemies. He will 
set you free from your bondage to evil habits. He 
will take from you your graveclothes of sin. He 
will bring you into the land of promise. He will 
lead you into new associations and fellowships. 
The old body of death shall be forgotten in the new 
and living friendship with everything that is good 
and holy. 

How many lonely souls I have known, who were 
without father or mother or friends, to whom con- 
version to Christ has been like a resurrection from 
the dead that has brought them into sweet associa- 
tions that have filled all their lives with heavenly 
love. And I have known many others whose associ- 
ations were filled with unhappiness that took away 
the joy of living, who, when they came to breathe 
the air of heaven and live in fellowship with 
Christ, found these sorrows to pass away and all 



AN OPEIN'-AIE PEEACHEE 



S15 



their earthly fellowships to be blessed and glorified 
by the new spirit which they found in J esus Christ. 
So with reverence and humility I lift my heart to 
God, and I pray: "Come, O Heavenly Wind! 
Come and breathe upon these who are dead in sin, 
that they may live !" 



216 THE GREAT POETEAITS OP THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEK XIX 
The Stae-Gazees 

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding 
great ioy.^Matthew ii, 10. 

The old astrologers to whom these wise men led 
by the star to the manger of Bethlehem belonged 
believed that the firmament of heaven consisted of 
concentric spheres, one including others, to which 
the sun, moon, and stars were attached. They be- 
lieved that the hemispheres which formed these 
separate spheres were not a good fit and let some 
light shine out, and that, in their judgment, ac- 
counted for the Milky Way. Beyond these spheres 
was to them the region of eternal day. Those 
dreamers of the old time also supposed that there 
was sweeter music than the rolling thunder which 
the spheres as they vibrated shook out upon the 
world, a music so sweet that our dull ears could 
not catch its tones, just as our eyes could not re- 
solve the marvelous light of the heavenly world. 
The astrologers dreamed of a magnificent melody 
from which mortals were thus shut out — ^the choir 



THE STAE-GAZEKS 



217 



of a thousand singing stars accompanied by the 
music of those soft and sweet, but vast, crystal 
bells, the spheres of the sky. 

All this shows us how the world was, as Paul 
says, "feeling after God'^ in the days before the 
Morning Star arose in the sky. For when Christ 
came it was not as the vague Milky Way, an un- 
certain light, but as a bright, brilliant, flashing 
star, clear-cut, individual, and luminous, a star 
so vivid and splendid that when the wise men saw 
it they rejoiced with exceeding joy. As some one 
has well said, there could not be a more beautiful 
conception than that a star should be the herald of 
the King of glory. How full of meaning it was as 
it shone out over the deeply shadowed earth ! It 
was a guide, beaming and benign. It was a light, 
showing the safe pathway and warning against the 
dangers which beset human feet. There was noth- 
ing vague or uncertain about it. It was in perfect 
contrast with the Milky Way — the pagan "light 
of the highest heavens." How beautifully the 
pagan emblem and the Christian emblem of 
spiritual light each represented that for which it 
stood ! Plato came wondrously near to the Chris- 
tian ideal. Virgil seems to have seen into the gates 
ajar and to have caught a shadow of what was hid- 
den beyond them — but how vague! Both, with 



218 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Job and Socrates and Philo and the host of wise 
men in many lands and ages, showed to men the 
luminous mist of the light of heaven which shone 
down between the loosely joined hemispheres of 
the sky. But Jesus Christ brought light and im- 
mortality to life. They were not only clearly de- 
fined and splendid, like the star of his nativity, but 
they were living like himself — living principles 
having in them the potency and the energy which 
should transform the world. 

And all the brotherhood of star-gazers from that 
day until this have found in Christ and in his 
Gospel, first of all, divine illumination and heat, 
^'He is the light of the world." How many of the 
Christmas pictures present us a wintry landscape 
rigid in the embrace of snow and ice. Such a pic- 
ture of Christmas time suggests the moral and 
spiritual condition of humanity at the world's first 
Christmas. As we look on the frozen landscape 
we know that it is not dead, but only sleeping. It 
is held in an iron grip and is waiting for the kiss of 
the sun when it shall draw nearer again. We 
know that when the sun shall caress the earth with 
power in the springtime the frozen streams will 
melt into gladness and dance and laugh as they go 
on their way toward the sea. We know the barren 
trees will be r^clothed and that the birds will sing 



THE STAE-OAZERS 



219 



tliere again and make tlieir nests. Life is lying 
dormant in all the world about ns, but it is never- 
theless there. 

Professor Tyndall tells ns that he has seen the 
sun rise in the higher Alps with such power that 
a mountain slope which in the early morning was 
white with snow was at noonday covered with a 
carpet of the most beautiful flowers. The flower 
roots were there under the snow; indeed, the very 
buds were there; nature was all ready, and when 
the warm rays of the sun melted the snow the great 
garden burst forth into blossom. So before Jesus 
came humanity was snowbound and icebound in 
the winter grasp of its alienation from God, our 
true Sun. The buds of flowers were striving under 
the snow and the human heart was hoping and 
longing after better things, but men were feeling 
only blindly. And then, suddenly, the wise men 
gazing up into the Milky Way beheld a star, and 
the shepherds watching their flocks on the plains 
of Bethlehem heard a song of the heavenly host, 
and in the manger in the little town a babe was 
born, and the Sun burst forth on the frozen earth, 
and the beams of its warmth and love started into 
blossom the sweetest flowers of human nature. 
Has he come to your heart ? Is the darkness 
dispelled there? Is all the frost melted? Are 



220 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

all tlie flowers of grace blooming? If not, 
open Yoiir heart to him perfectly this Christmas 
time. 

But the Christmas Gospel not only brings heav- 
enly illumination and warmth, it brings also divine 
guidance. The wise men who set out across the 
desert to seek the newborn King were guided by 
the star. When they came to Jerusalem they were 
for a little while confused. They made the same 
mistake that x^aaman did when he went to the 
king of Israel instead of to God's prophet to be 
healed of his leprosy. These men came to the 
rulers and the politicians, thinking these would 
know about the Christ. But when they turned 
away to the prophecies concerning Jesus, and 
obeyed God's Word, they saw the star again, shin- 
ing with brightest challenge, calling them to fol- 
low. As they looked upon its dazzling rays all 
their doubts disappeared and their hearts bounded 
with great joy. They followed the star until it 
stood above the Christ-child. How important it 
is that we turn our eyes steadfastly toward the 
one true, guiding Star. Many false lights 
spring up in the sky of the human imagination 
that, like the mirage of the desert, allure only to 
deceive. 

It is related that the great Bismarck was once 



THE STAK-GAZEES 



221 



asked for an autograph by a young Englisli girl 
who professed extraordinary admiration for him 
and wrote that she would consider a few lines from 
him an omen of happiness for her future life. He 
sent her these words : ^'Beware, my child, of build- 
ing castles in the air. They are, of all structures, 
the easiest to erect and most difficult to demolish." 
But he who follows the Star of Bethlehem with 
faithful gaze may be sure that the outcome of life 
will be peace. 

When Charles Kingsley was dying he said : "It 
is not darkness I am going to, for God is light. It 
is not lonely, for Christ is with me. It is not an 
unknown country, for Christ is there." Then, 
after telling how earnestly he was looking for- 
ward, he added very solemnly, "God forgive me if 
I am wrong, but I am looking forward to it with 
reverent curiosity." How delightful are such con- 
ceptions of the "Father's house" ! They help us 
to sing with the poet : 

"One of these days will the heartache leave us. 

One of these days will the hurden drop; 
Never again shall a hope deceive us, 

Never again will our progress stop. 
Freed from the blight of the vain endeavor, 

Winged with the health of immortal life, 
One of these days we shall quit forever 

All that is vexing in earthly strife. 



222 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

"One of these days we shall know the reason, 

Haply, of much that perplexes now; 
One of these days, in the Lord's good season, 

Light of his peace shall adorn the brow. 
Blessed, though out of tribulation 

Lifted to dwell in his sun-bright smile, 
Happy to share in the great salvation. 

Well may we tarry a little while." 

The true-hearted star-gazer finds all common life 
ennohled. Duty is exalted and lifted into heavenly 
relations. Seymour Curtiss tells an interesting 
story of President Lincoln. In 1856 Mr. Curtiss 
went, in company with James Booth, to hear Lin- 
coln speak. As he stepped upon the platform to 
begin his speech Booth said to Curtiss, "What a 
homely man ! He's the homeliest man I ever saw." 
But as Lincoln talked and waxed eloquent Booth 
brought his clinched fist down on Curtiss's knee, 
and the latter said he hit hard, and said: "Sey- 
mour Curtiss, he is not so bad-looking after all! 
He grows handsomer all the time." At last, with 
a sledge-hammer blow of his fist on Curtiss's knee, 
Booth exclaimed, "Curtiss, he is the handsomest 
man I ever saw!" So, many of life's duties are 
ugly and unpleasant until there falls on them the 
softening radiance of the light of Bethlehem, and 
under the power of the constraining love of Jesus 
they become altogether beautiful. The motive is 



THE STAE-QAZEES 



228 



everything in your work. All depends on where 
you get that. If your motive springs out of the 
ground and is of the earth earthy, then doing duty 
is the most galling slavery. On the other hand, if 
it was born among the stars it brings to commonest 
toil its own heavenly grace. If we do our daily 
duties merely as a routine they will always be hard 
work, and the element of drudgery and slavery will 
be in them. But if we catch the spirit of Christ, 
so that we are inspired by love, it will be very dif- 
ferent. Love transfigures duty and makes it a 
privilege instead of a burden. It is still our duty, 
but instead of the face of a slave it has the face of 
an angel. Christ emphasizes his pleasure in the 
smallest thing we do if only it is done for love's 
sake. A cup of cold water is enough to win heav- 
enly benediction if love offers it. Christ measures 
not the hollow of the cup but the hollow of the 
heart that prompts it. 

"No life so poor that may not yet 
Be of that wondrous coronet 
The Maker of all will joyous wear, 
When earth in heaven shall disappear. 

"Go! What thou canst of all repair: 
Love's blessings, scattered now and here. 
In the waste ways of sin shall yet 
Bloom for that wondrous coronet." 



224 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OP THE BIBLE 



This religion of the stars brings a breath of 
heaven's peace into the midst of the strife of 
the warring earth. How soothing it is to go out 
of the heated room at night, from some stndj 
of the world's worry and strife, and look up at 
the serene and peaceful stars. How they seem 
to say to us, '^During all your little strifes we 
are at rest." So our holy Christianity comes to 
the world with the olive branch from the realms 
of eternal peace. 

There lingers yet in English law the ancient 
custom of the heirloom, a species of hereditary 
property that no spendthrift can squander, no un- 
worthy inheritor destroy. Certain costly jewels, 
valuable paintings, rare relics, descend unfailingly 
from father to son, and though the heir may appre- 
ciate them but little or put them to unworthy uses 
they cling to him in spite of himself, and when 
brought to light by successive inheritors they are, 
as sandalwood or cedar, fragrant with the inex- 
tinguishable memories of the past. Thus, Canon 
Wilberforce says, Christmas is the world's heir- 
loom in the sphere of faith and morals. Many who 
have, spendthriftlike, squandered their spiritual 
inheritance, and are to-day unthinking, indiffer- 
ent, prayerless, will nevertheless at Christmas time 
feel, they know not why nor whence, an unwonted 



THE STAR-GAZEES 



225 



glow stealing over them with the power and the 
mysteriousness of a higher life. 

It is a broken-hearted world, full of sin and 
wrong-doing, and even while the bells are ringing 
for Christmas time we know that the nations are 
armed to the teeth and the world is by no means 
free of war. Yet Christmas is the promise and 
pledge of the coming of perfect peace, and there 
is no part of the earth where its message has 
gone but that into the soldier's camp and even 
into the dungeon and the jail there will come 
something of the radiance and the hope and the 
promise of the coming reign of the Prince of 
Peace. 

Judge Templeton, of Knoxville, Tenn., has re- 
lated this story of his father, who was a preacher 
and a refugee in Georgia at the time General Sher- 
man made his great march from Atlanta to the 
sea. In spite of the warlike times about them the 
old gentleman was conducting a revival at a little 
house called Pine Log Creek Church. The times 
were most terrible and the whole country was sub- 
ject to visitations of marauding parties from both 
armies. One day the old man was preaching a 
sermon of unusual power, and before he had gotten 
well under way a gang of Confederate soldiers rode 
up and, dismounting back of the church, asked if 
15 



226 THE GREAT POETRAITS OE THE BIBLE 

they might be admitted. They were cordially in- 
vited in and took prominent seats. 

]^ot long afterward a clond of dust was seen in 
the road from the opposite direction to that from 
which the Confederates had come, and pretty soon 
the tramp of horses' hoofs was heard and it was 
discovered that it was a squad of Federal troops. 
And before the Confederates in the church could 
be apprised of their approach they had ridden 
up to the door. Perceiving that religious 
services were being held, they alighted and 
asked to be admitted. They were then told that 
there were Confederate soldiers in the church, 
but they insisted on going in and were also ad- 
mitted. 

^Naturally the strange spectacle created some 
consternation in the congregation, and for a time 
it seemed as if the confusion would break up the 
meeting; but the aged preacher raised his voice 
and began most fervently to plead for a better life, 
beseeching his soldier hearers to surrender to 
Christ and abandon their sins. He preached with 
great unction, the strange scene lending him in- 
spiration. Strong men were stirred to the depths 
and wept like children, and the scene of confusion 
was soon changed to one of strong religious awak- 
ening. 



THE STAR-aAZEES 



227 



When the sermon was concluded lie invited those 
who were convinced of sin to come forward to the 
altar and talk and pray with him on the all-impor- 
tant subject. Then occurred one of the grandest 
sights ever witnessed. Those soldiers, enemies to 
each other, engaged in a bloody war, arose as one 
man, friend and foe together, and marched to the 
front of the church and knelt together, Confederate 
by Federal, their muskets joining and crossing 
each other, their revolvers touching each other as 
they knelt, their heads bowed upon the same altar, 
and their tears mingling in their deep contrition 
and profound feeling. All animosities were for- 
gotten, all strife was forgotten. They were to- 
gether as brothers around the common altar. 

After the service they met on the outside of the 
church, shook hands, pledged fraternity, and each 
party went off, taking opposite directions. They 
had been looking for each other with murderous 
intent. They found each other, but because Christ 
was there also they separated with love instead of 
hate, friendly instead of angry. 

Christmas is not only the pledge of peace be- 
tween man and man, but it is also the hope and the 
pledge of peace in every human heart. Christ 
raises the standard of peace in each individual soul. 
Some one interprets his promise in song: 



228 THE aEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



"I promise only perfect peace, 

Sweet peace that lives through years of strife. 
Immortal hope, immortal life. 
And rest when all these wanderings cease; 

Take up thy cross 
And follow me! 



"My yoke is easy; put it on; 
My burden very light to hear. 
Who shareth this my crown shall share — 
On earth the cross, in heaven the crown; 

Take up thy cross 
And follow me!" 



SHAKING PFF THE VIPEES 



229 



CHAPTER XX 

Shaking Off the Vipers 

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and 
laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, 
and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw 
the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among 
themselves. No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, 
though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth 
not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, 
and felt no harm. — Acts xxviii, 3-5. 

This little incident is a part of one of the most 
interesting stories in the history of the life of Paul. 
Paul was on his way to Rome to be tried before 
E'ero. They were going by ship, and it was at the 
opening of winter when fierce storms were not un- 
usual in those seas. The ship touched at The Pair- 
havens, and when it came time to sail Paul argued 
with the Roman officer and the captain of the ship 
against sailing until the weather was settled. But 
the harbor was not very good, and the sailors and 
soldiers wanted to get into a larger town for winter 
quarters, where there would be more opportunity 
for the sort of jollity in which they delighted. 
Paul assured them that he was convinced they 



230 THE GEE AT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

would not only risk the loss of the vessel but the 
loss of their own lives hv sailing at that time. But 
the officer, believing that the caj)tain of the ship 
knew more about such things than a preacher who 
like himself was a landsman, ordered the sail to be 
set. He was specially aided in this decision by the 
fact that the weather was very mild and a most de- 
lightful south wind was blowing. But that south 
wind proved to be very deceitful, for no sooner 
were they out of sight of land than a terrible storm 
beat upon them. Weather-beaten sailor as he was, 
the captain had never seen so fierce a storm on any 
sea. At last they threw overboard not only the 
cargo, but the very tackling of the ship, trying to 
get rid of everything on which the wind could take 
hold. Finally all hope was gone, except in the 
heart of Paul. One morning he stood forth among 
the utterly disheartened sailors and soldiers and 
said with a cheerful voice, "Sirs, ye should have 
hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from 
Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss." 
Even Paul could not resist saying, "I told you so." 
But if he had had nothing else to say he would 
have kept still. I imagine they would have thrown 
him overboard if that had been all the message he 
brought. But what followed took the sting out of 
it. "And now," said Paul, "I exhort you to be of 



SIIAKIIv^G- OFF THE VIPERS 



231 



good cheer : for there shall be no loss of any man's 
life among yon, bnt of the ship. For there stood 
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and 
whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul ; thou must 
be brought before Csesar : and, lo, God hath given 
thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, 
be of good cheer : for I believe God, that it shall be 
even as it was told me." From that day on Paul 
was the life of that party, and took the lead in 
everything. Even the Koman officer did every- 
thing that Paul said. In an emergency the real 
leader will always come to the front. Shoulder- 
straps do not count for much in a great emergency 
when life and death is at stake. Paul was a pris- 
oner in chains, but the Eoman soldier and the cap- 
tain of the ship did his bidding without question. 

After the storm had continued for two weeks, 
and the fright and hardship and exposure and lack 
of food had worn them all out, Paul urged them 
that they must eat, and he assured them that not a 
hair of their heads should be lost. Then he took 
food himself, "and gave thanks to God in presence 
of them all : and when he had broken it, he began 
to eat." Luke says that his example was con- 
tagious, and they all became cheerful and made a 
good square meal. There were two hundred and 
seventy-six people on board and when the ship 



232 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

finally went to pieces they all escaped to land. The 
island on which they were cast was called Melita. 
The people were barbarians, but they were kind, 
and bnilt up a fire by which the drenched refugees 
from the wreck might dry themselves. Paul's 
chains had been taken off, and being always a help- 
ful sort of man he soon gathered up a bundle of 
sticks on his own account, and threw them on the 
fire, and as he stood over the fire warming himself 
there came out of the bundle of sticks which he 
himself had gathered a viper that sprang on him 
and set its fangs in his arm. The ignorant and 
barbarous people gathered about, being full of 
superstition, thought that it was some punishment 
for his crimes. They said to themselves that he 
must be a very bad man, who, though he had 
escaped from the sea, vengeance would not allow to 
live. But when Paul shook the viper off into the 
fire as though it were nothing, and his arm did not 
swell or show the effect of poison, they quickly 
changed their minds, and concluded that it was a 
god that had been cast upon the island. 

That was the beginning of great blessings to that 
island. The shipwrecked mariners and soldiers 
with Paul had to spend three months there before 
a ship came to take them off, and Paul spent that 
whole time in deeds of mercy. He healed their 



SHAKING OFF THE VIPEKS 



233 



sick and left a train of good deeds behind him that 
could never be forgotten. 

It is interesting to note that Paul came upon 
this viper while he was busy seeking to add not 
only to his own comfort but to that of his ship- 
wrecked companions. It was out of the bundle of 
wood which he himself had gathered and thrown on 
the fire that the peril came. I wish to use this 
story to suggest to us the vipers that threaten us in 
the ordinary avocations of our lives. A thing may 
be good in itself, and we may be going on in the 
path of our duty, gathering the materials which are 
necessary to build the fires for our comfort, and yet 
need to be on the lookout for the vipers that are 
hidden in the fires of life. 

There is the business mans viper — the viper of 
dishonesty. Some of you men are just going into 
business, and, while that is a most honorable thing 
to do, you need to remember that there is many a 
lurking peril among the boxes and bags and 
bundles which make up the sticks with which you 
seek to kindle the fire of business success. You 
will be tempted to take some short cut to for- 
tune. The honest path of giving value received 
for everything will seem a long way around, and 
the short cut of seizing hold upon it by some sharp 
trick or well-covered-up deception will tempt you. 



234 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Whenever jou face such a deception remember that 
it is a viper on your hand. Fling it into the fire. 
Every defaulter's cell, many a suicide's fate, many 
a bankrupt's record, many a disgraced tramp, bear 
testimony to the poison of that viper. God has 
not v\;^ithdrawn the Decalogue. ^Thou shalt not 
steal" is just as much a part of God's law for a 
business man in 'New York city as it is in any little 
country town or in any farming settlement where 
you may have been brought up. Perhaps you 
have known men to steal, and they have not been 
punished for it yet. Perhaps they did not even 
call it stealing, but they dishonestly took their 
neighbor's goods and gave him no return. Do 
not be deceived. ^^God is not mocked. Whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap." God does 
not need to settle up with every man at the end of 
the week. But at last he settles. If there is a man 
here who is living dishonestly, and carrying on his 
business so that it is a cheat and a swindle, building 
up his business career on a lie, I beg you in God's 
name to heed the warning. No matter whether 
anybody knows it or not, God knows it, and you 
know it, and that is two too many to keep a secret. 
That secret dishonor is a deadly viper ; shake it off, 
in God's name, and seek the healing balm of the 
Great Physician to cauterize the wound. 



SHAKINa OFF THE VIPEES 



235 



Then there is the politicians viper. All Ameri- 
cans are more or less politicians — most young law- 
yers, most newspaper men, many business men of 
every sort. Indeed it would be a good thing if all 
men, and women, too, took an intelligent, sober, 
earnest interest in political life. The politician's 
viper is insincerity. His constant temptation is to 
talk one thing and to mean another. He is often 
tempted to stand by a principle which he knows is 
wrong because for the time it is popular in the 
political party with which he is associated. That 
loss of sincerity is a terrible loss. 'No man can 
afford to lose the frankness of character which be- 
longs to genuine righteousness. Many young men 
who start in with a bright Christian experience lose 
it in corrupt politics. Fling the viper into the 
fire — ^not politics, but the temptation to be insin- 
cere and untruthful in politics. Keep your man- 
hood clean. Stand for the right everywhere. A 
man can be as clean and honorable and wholesome 
a Christian in political life as anywhere else. But 
he must be a man, and absolutely faithful to Christ 
and the truth. 

There is the viper of worldliness. This is a very 
brilliant snake but a very deadly one. The young 
are tempted to believe that during the early years 
of their professional or business life, while they 



236 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

are making their career, they cannot afford to give 
mncli time and attention to Christianity. After 
a while, when they are old and white-headed, 
Christ shall have the right of way. What a sad 
and awful blunder that is ! Long before that time 
comes the deadly poison of the serpent has turned 
the whole nature aside from Christ and righteous- 
ness, and the soul has been starved with worldly 
things. Eling the worldly viper into the fire. Ke- 
member if you are to be a good old man you must 
be a good young man. If you are to be a gracious 
and noble woman in the days of white hair, you 
must now, in your girlhood, be devoted to right- 
eousness and be beautified by the charm of Christ. 

There is the viper of an ungoverned temper. An 
ungoverned temper means anger let loose ; it means 
hate nourished; it means jealousy running away 
with the bit between its teeth ; it means envy per- 
mitted to fester ; in the end it often means murder. 
Let every young man with an evil temper and 
every young woman with a jealous, envious dis- 
position shake the viper into the fire now. You 
can destroy it now ! let it go a while and you can- 
not. Do you know that that man who is a monster 
of evil temper, a perfect bundle of prejudices and 
hates, whose words are always full of bitterness, 
and whose outbursts of anger are dreaded, when he 



SHAKING OFF THE VIPERS 



237 



was a boy had no worse a temper than you have 
now? Then he could have thrown the viper into 
the fire. If you would shun what he is now, take 
warning and act. Do you see that woman who is 
growing old, a perfect storehouse of jealousy and 
envy and cruel suspicions, so that no one is pure 
enough to be safe from the sting of her gossiping, 
slanderous tongue. Once her disposition was no 
worse than yours is now. If you shudder at the 
thought of growing into a woman like that, then 
fling your viper into the fire at once. 

Then there is the viper of self-indulgence. 'No 
matter how it may show itself — in the fascinations 
of the wine glass, in the seductions of impure 
literature, in evil-minded companions, or in the 
glamour and deadly charm of lust—it is a viper 
full of poison. The whole city has been shocked 
during the last few days by the death of a young 
business man. A young man handsome and bril- 
liant in manners and appearance and successful in 
a business way suddenly goes out of life, either a 
case of suicide or a case of murder. In either case 
dead by his own hand, in that he had given himself 
over to the fascinations of self-indulgence. This 
case but illustrates the truth of God's Word that 
^^the wages of sin is death.'' When the father of 
this young man was told of his son's death he ex- 



238 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

claimed : "I am not surprised. I have been expect- 
ing it. I knew by the way he was going that this 
must be the end." O, my friend, are yon going the 
same way? God help you to look on that rotten 
spot of self-indulgence and see it without its 
glamour ; see it without the lying fascination ; see 
it as it is, a loathsome, festering sore that will rot 
your whole manhood, your whole womanhood, and 
bring it to ruin utterly and without hope if per- 
mitted to go on. riing the viper into the fire ! 

But some one says, ^^My viper is too strong for 
me. There was a time when I could have flung it 
away easily, but I nourished it and petted it, until 
now it is my master. Woe is me. ^Wlien I would 
do good, evil is present with me.' " If that is your 
case, then I bring you good tidings of great joy. 
Christ is able to break the deadly fascinations of 
your sin and rescue you from the fangs of the 
viper. Christ is the Great Physician who has a 
healing balm that can counteract the awful poison 
in your blood, take out of it the intoxicating fever 
of evil, and fill it with love and appreciation for 
that which is good and noble. Christ can set you 
free from your sins. This very hour turn away 
from your sins, and yield yourself to Christ, and 
you shall be saved. 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO HUSBAOTS 239 



CHAPTEE XXI 

What the Bible Says to Husbaitds 

The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is 
the head of the church. — Ephesians v, 23. 

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved 
the church, and gave himself for it. — Ephesians v, 25. 

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. 
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.— Ephesians v, 28. 

These passages certainly give man the first place 
in the family. He is to take the lead. So far all 
men agree. Lucy Stone used to tell about some 
children of her acquaintance;, one being quite a 
large girl of fourteen or fifteen years of age and 
the other a little boy of about six who had a bad 
lisp. The two children were sent on an errand to 
the neighbor's at a distant farmhouse. When they 
arrived at the house the girl, being so much older, 
was about to knock on the door, but the boy leaped 
in front of her with uplifted hand and male indig- 
nation, exclaiming: ^'The man muth rap! The 
man muth rap 

Man generally is willing to accept the situation 
that it is his privilege to "rap.'' He is perfectly 
willing to accept the headship of the family. But 



240 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

let US not overlook the fact that these sentences are 
just as clear on another point, and that is that the 
headship of the hushand is of the same character as 
that which Christ sustains toward the Church. If 
you want to find the proper relation between a hus- 
band and his wife you must study Christ's relation 
to the Church. The whole philosophy is there. 
The moment we begin to study that we find that 
Paul has here set a great pace for husbands. For 
we must all admit that the relation of Christ to the 
Church is not that of the arbitrary master or dic- 
tator, but that of the most loving helper. Christ 
instead of trying to shut us out of equality with 
him gave his life that he might save us from our 
sins and bring us into an equality with him, mak- 
ing us fellow-heirs with him in all the blessings of 
God. The husband, then, to be properly the head 
of the wife, must in the highest and noblest sense 
be her helper and protector. And instead of lord- 
ing it over her he must seek to bring her into full 
fellowship with every blessing which he enjoys. 

If we are to follow out this model we shall find 
some very interesting things for the husband. 
Christ sets the tone and the spirit for the Church. 
We are to be like him. The Church prospers when 
it is like Jesus. It fails when it falls away from 
his Spirit. When Christ is present in the Church 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO HUSBANDS 241 

and the membership associate with him and love 
him and serve him with ready minds, then the very 
atmosphere of heaven pervades the Church, filling 
it with peace and inspiring it with courage. iTow, 
the husband cannot escape this great fact, that in 
the very nature of things he makes the tone of the 
family life. The atmosphere depends very largely 
upon him, and many a man is complaining of the 
atmosphere of his home when he himself is to 
blame for it. If the husband's habits of thought, 
of reading, of conversation, are high and elevating, 
full of intelligence and good cheer and loving sym- 
pathy, the wife, and the home itself, will very soon 
come into harmony with that sort of thing. But if 
a man's habits are slovenly and neglectful of better 
things; if he makes of his home only a sleeping 
barrack and a lunch counter, and confines his con- 
versation to the bare facts of physical existence, 
which answer to the ordinary grunts or growls of 
the pig or the dog, in sty or kennel, how can he 
expect that his wife will maintain against such 
opposition those intellectual and social and moral 
habits that will create a home that is full of sym- 
pathy and love and intelligence ? I repeat it ; A 
husband is the head of the wife in this fact, that he 
is responsible for the tone of the family life, and 
nothing can excuse him from it. 
16 



242 THE OEEAT TOKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Again, Christ is the inspiration of the Church. 
He is constantly inspiring the Church to better 
things by his own example and sympathy. Every 
Christian feels that he has the brotherly sympathy 
of Jesus Christ whenever he undertakes to do a 
noble and heroic deed. I^othing is more tenderly 
inspiring in doing deeds of self-denial, in carrying 
burdens that require great self-sacrifice on our 
part, than to feel that Jesus Christ is pleased with 
us and that the great heart of our Saviour swells 
with holy admiration and love at the sight of our 
faithful work. 

'Now, the husband is the head of the wife in this 
sense also, that he should inspire her to noble deeds 
by his own example, by his sympathy, by his appre- 
ciation. In all these ways he is to constantly make 
growth in intelligence and in mental and spiritual 
graces attractive and delightful to her. 

I was reading recently the life of Chancellor 
Kent, of New York, one of those who have been 
counted worthy of a place in the ^^Hall of Fame for 
Eminent Americans.'' Now, I suppose Kent was 
one of the greatest illustrations of the power of a 
man to use every moment of available time outside 
his daily work to make himself a great scholar and 
a man of encyclopedic information that America 
has ever known, and, indeed, one of the greatest in 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO HUSBAITDS 243 

the world. To the very last of his life he kept fresh 
his enthusiasm for knowledge. But the thing that 
especially interested me was that he was wise 
enough to determine to take his wife along with 
him in this search. When they were married she 
was very young. She had not had very good oppor- 
tunities for early education, and though she was a 
woman of beautiful character and of strong natural 
abilities she had no special taste for literature. 
While she had not the time from her household 
duties to enter into all the studies of her husband, 
Kent so arranged his time that he spent two hours 
every day communicating to her and inspiring in 
her a taste for and a knowledge of tlie great Eng- 
lish authors, and he did this for years, until she in 
turn became famous for the graces of her personal- 
ity. In doing that he simply did his duty. He was 
inspiring her, as Christ inspires the Church, to the 
very best that was in her. 

Christ cherishes in the Church the spirit of affec- 
tion and love. Paul says a man ought to love his 
wife as Christ loves the Church — that is, with per- 
fect unselfishness. Christ regards everything that 
is done for the weakest and poorest of his brothers 
and sisters as though it were done for himself. 
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me," is 



244 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Christ's eternal pledge of the complete unselfish- 
ness of his love. 'Now, the husband is the head of 
the wife in this matter of the affectionate atmos- 
phere which shall pervade and master their lives. 
If a spirit of affection dies out in a family in the 
relations between the husband and the wife there 
is no doubt in my mind that the husband is usually 
to blame for it. I am not discussing the fallibility 
or infallibility of wives when I say that, but I am 
speaking common sense from some knowledge of 
human nature and considerable observation of do- 
mestic affairs. I am convinced that it is a rare 
case where a good man and a good woman, really 
loving each other, enter the marriage relation, and 
there is a falling off in the atmosphere of affection 
which surrounded the wedding and the honeymoon, 
if it does not begin with the husband. The hus- 
band often excuses himself for not showing the 
same sympathetic tenderness toward his wife some 
years after marriage as that which he revealed to 
her at first. He thinks that because he is busy and 
has many burdens and cares that it ought not to be 
expected of him. What if Christ treated the 
Church that way. But you know he does not. He 
is as tender and loving and as quick to answer the 
prayers and approaches of men and women to-day 
as he was when he walked here on earth, and noth- 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO HUSBANDS 



245 



ing can really excuse the husband from cherishing 
the affection and love of his wife. Many a home 
has been filled with suspicion and sorrow, and 
many another broken up by sin, that would never 
have been so troubled if it had not been for the 
forgetfulness and neglect of the husband to do his 
duty in daily cherishing the love of his wife. 

In doing this the husband is only making sure 
of his own happiness. He is only illustrating the 
statement made in one of our texts, which says, 
^'He that loveth his wife loveth himself.'^ A man 
who lets love die out of his family and introduces 
there neglect and indifference or strife and discord 
is planting thorns in the pillow upon which his 
head must lie when he comes to be old and weary. 
While a man is young and strong he may think he 
can get along without love, without sympathy, 
without the kind fellowship of the home; but the 
time will come when the world will be a very lonely 
place without these things. Many a man has felt 
the truth sung by Oliver Goldsmith : 



"In all my wanderings round this world of care, 
In all my griefs — and God has given my share — 
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown, 
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down; 
To husband out life's taper at the close, 
And keep the flame from wasting by repose ; 



246 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



I still had hopes — for pride attends us still — 
Amidst the swains to show my hook-learned skill, 
Around my fire an evening group to draw, 
And tell of all I felt, and all I saw; 
And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue. 
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew, 
I still had hopes, my long vexations past, 
Here to return — and die at home at last." 



The husband is the head of the wife in religious 
culture and comfort. He must be this if he is to 
follow the example of Jesus in his attitude toward 
the Church. Christ inspires in the Church sincere 
reverence for God, the atmosjDhere of prayer and 
devotion; and when a husband assumes that rela- 
tion to a woman, and takes her as his wife, he be- 
comes, in so far as he has the power of influence, 
responsible for her religious character. I think 
more husbands fail at this point than at any other. 
There are two paths here that are evil. One is 
where a husband undertakes to arbitrarily decide 
what his wife shall believe, what Church she shall 
join, and what religious habits she shall form. 
Is^othing could be farther from the example which 
Christ sets in his relation to the Church. God has 
not made the husband a little pope and given him 
authority to issue infallible decrees concerning the 
conscience of his wife. And nothing is surer to 
make strife, or to do deadly hurt to the better na- 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO HUSBAJTDS 247 

tiire of his wife, than for a husband to take that 
attitude toward her. 

But there is another evil path, and that is when 
the husband neglects his duties to God and the 
Church, and leaves his wife v^ithout any religious 
influence on his part to help her to be a Christian. 
I have known many and many a Christian wife, 
who had grown up in the Church and who had 
rejoiced in religious services until the wedding day, 
to be slowly but certainly chilled to death in her 
spiritual nature through the indifference and cold- 
ness of her husband in regard to such matters. I 
have had wives tell me with bitter tears coursing 
down their cheeks that they were losing the joy of 
their Christian lives, and that the consciousness of 
it was agony to them, and yet the attitude of their 
husbands was such that they feared if they did not 
stay away from the Church services or refrain 
from active participation in the duties of religion 
they would separate themselves from their hus- 
bands' love and bring upon themselves future sor- 
row in their homes. ISTow, the husband in a case 
like that is not only sinning against God and doing 
an irreparable damage to his wife, but he is rob- 
bing himself here and hereafter. 

True religion is the only proper atmosphere for 
the family life. The marriage state makes great 



248 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

demands on charity, and requires that one shall 
give and take with a great deal of patience. It is 
impossible that it can be lived in a noble and beau- 
tiful way without human sympathy and love, and 
that cannot be permanently fed without a spirit of 
reverence toward God and reliance on and con- 
fidence in the heavenly Father. Daily prayer in 
the home, a consciousness on the part of both hus- 
band and wife that the other has the same desire 
to do the will of God and meet conscientiously the 
duties of life, will clear the air of many a doubt 
and fear. 

'Now, the husband, as the head of the family, has 
the laboring oar in this matter. It is a rare thing 
indeed when a husband desires to become a Chris- 
tian that the wife is not willing to go by his side. 
Are there not some who hear me this very hour who 
by accepting Christ and openly placing themselves 
on the Lord's side would thus set the keynote for 
the whole family circle ? 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 



249 



CHAPTEE XXII 
What the Bible Says to Wives 

And the wife see that she reverence her husband. — 

Ephesians v, 33. 

The Eevised Version of the Scriptures trans- 
lates this word "reverence'' into the word "fear." 
The word which is in one version translated "rever- 
ence" and in the other "fear" signifies a mingling 
of what we mean by love and esteem and by fear 
to offend. Mingle these all together and you have 
the word "reverence." It is a noble, loving sort of 
fear, akin to the feeling but in different gradation 
to that which the devout soul feels toward God. A 
woman ought never to marry a man she cannot 
reverence. It is not enough to pity a man's mis- 
fortunes or weaknesses and wed him in the hope 
that you may help him. Such a union brings sor- 
row and not happiness ninety-nine times out of a 
hundred. Marrying a man to reform him is 
directly contrary to the spirit of God's Word. 'No 
woman reverences a man who is in need of reforma- 
tion, and if he will not for love of her, respect for 
himself, and fear of his God turn from his sini 



250 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

and live righteously before marriage there is little 
hope that he will do so afterward. 'No woman can 
come to such a wedding with that reverential love 
and sentiment of honor toward her husband which 
the Bible teaching requires of a wife. 

Such an idea of wifehood, of course, bars utterly 
marriages of convenience. 'No woman has the 
right to mari-y a man simply because he has money 
or an acknowledged social position, and because by 
such a marriage she will be able to escape hard 
work and wear better clothes and live in more 
luxurious surroundings than she would without it. 
Such marriages are plainly immoral. There is no 
sanctity, no sacredness, about such relations. 
woman ever yet truly reverenced her husband who 
did not love him vdth all her heart, and, in addition 
to her love, esteem and respect him, and willingly 
merge her life into his, acknowledging him as her 
head and leader, glad and proud to be his com- 
panion and helpmeet. 

If a wive thus truly reverences her husband, it 
will be her highest joy to make a home for him 
which will be worthy of the kind of man whom she 
has honored with her love and esteem. Her hus- 
band will be no more truly the breadwinner than 
she will be the bread keeper and distributer. She 
will not regard this as a service any the less honor- 



tWHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 251 

able than his, though he be governor or president, 
though he be judge or minister, though he be a 
great merchant or banker, though he be famous 
and popular as an author or an orator, though his 
name be in all the papers and praised on every lip, 
and her own personality largely unknown. There 
will be in her heart no envy or jealousy, and she 
will not regard her service as the home keeper a 
whit less honorable than his. l^ay, her heart will 
swell with pride in his honor, for is she not merged 
into his life ? And is it not her privilege to make 
a worthy home for this man, in which he may rest 
when he is tired, where he may be consoled when 
in trouble, in which every day he may breathe an 
atmosphere of peace and love that quiets his brain, 
that soothes his nerves, that gives courage to his 
heart, that strengthens his soul, and sends him 
forth with renewed energy to win the great vic- 
tories which the world so loudly applauds ? 

The wife who truly reverences her husband will 
feel that there is no sphere in life nobler than to be 
the home maker for her husband. We have a beau- 
tiful illustration of this in the Old Testament in 
the case of a family that dwelt at Shunem. It was 
a great house, and the broad acres of the plantation 
stretched far away. It was a religious family, and 
they entertained Elisha the prophet whenever he 



252 THE GREAT POETEAITS OP THE BIBLE 

passed tliat way. The wife was a great-hearted 
woman, and she said to her husband that she 
thought it would be a nice thing to do to build a 
special chamber for the man of Grod, so that when- 
ever he came that way he would have his own room, 
and he would not feel like a stranger, but it would 
be like coming home. And the husband agreed to 
this, and Elisha and his secretary always stopped 
there when they journeyed through the country. 
Elisha was greatly touched by her kindness and 
wished to do something for her to show his grati- 
tude. So on one occasion, when he was being enter- 
tained at the house, he inquired what he could do 
to please her. He was a great man, and could do 
much to advance her position in a social way, and 
so he offered to introduce her at the court of the 
king. But with quiet contentment and fidelity to 
her own household she answered, "I dwell among 
mine own people." Could there be anything more 
beautiful than that? To be the wife of her hus- 
band, to make his home for him, to share his simple 
pleasures and experiences, this was better to her 
than the court of the king. 

A wife who reverences her husband will be so 
loyal to him that anything which threatens him she 
will feel as threatening herself, and she will not 
hesitate to thrust herself into the breach to help 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 253 

and save him. The wife who truly loves and rever- 
ences her husband never thinks of how she may 
shield herself from his folly, but she is ever think- 
ing how she may shield him from his own folly. 
We have a beautiful illustration of that in the first 
book of Samuel; where there is told the story of a 
wife who saved her husband's life at great risk to 
herself. There was a man named E"abal, who was 
a sheep owner. He had the largest flocks of sheep 
in the country, and nearly every year roving bands 
of Philistines came into the region and drove off 
a good many of his sheep. But he had the terri- 
tory largely to himself, and on the whole he made 
a good thing of it and grew to be very rich. 

About this time David and his brave band of 
followers, flying from the superior armies of Saul, 
sought refuge up in the rocky fastnesses in the 
midst of the great pasture ground where ITabaFs 
flocks found their food, and for a long time they 
remained there, and during a whole year they kept 
the Philistines away and did not allow them to 
touch a single lamb from IN'abars herds. 'Not only 
did they defend them from the Philistines, but 
Avhat was more remarkable for hungry men in a 
tight place, who had to live on what they could find 
by hunting, they did not take a single sheep them- 
selves. It went on that way till sheep-shearing 



254 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

time, and then David, who was a shepherd lad, got 
hungry for the taste of mutton, and he told some 
of his young fellows to go down to !N'abal and re- 
mind him how they had taken care of his flocks, 
and ask him to send them up a taste of fresh meat. 

Of course, if I^'abal had had any sense he would 
have seen the wisdom and reasonableness of grant- 
ing this request. But he was a hot-headed fool, 
and so he abused the men and sent back a stinging 
and bitter rej^ly to David. It worked havoc with 
all of David's good resolutions to keep the peace 
with ISTabal. He gathered four himdred of his men 
together and started do^vn the mountain, vowing 
to kill ITabal and drive away his flocks. 

But I^abal had a wife named Abigail who was 
as wise as he was foolish. She had been deceived 
in N^abal. But she had come to know what a 
foolish fellow he was. However, she had taken 
him for better or worse, and now that she found it 
worse and not better she did not leave him, but 
stuck to him like a true heroine. Some of Nabal's 
men told her what had happened, and in a moment 
she saw that David could never swallow an insult 
like that, and that there would be trouble. So she 
ordered a splendid present to be got together. With 
great haste she gathered up two hundred loaves of 
bread and had five sheep dressed, and five meas- 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 255 

tires of parched corn, a hundred clusters of raisins, 
and two hundred cakes of figs. She had this put 
on donkeys and sent along ahead of her, and when 
she met David she threiv herself on her face before 
him, and with rare humility and wisdom she con- 
quered David's anger and sent him back to the 
mountain in peace. 

In all this Abigail was the true wife. Her hus- 
band was not worthy of her, but he was her hus- 
band, and she honored herself by her loyalty and 
fidelity to his interests. One of the very first ele- 
ments of integrity in a wife is loyalty to her hus- 
band. If she does not always agree with her 
husband, and does not always approve of what he 
does, she makes a very great mistake to talk it over 
even with her mother or her sisters or with her 
friends. The tie between husband and wife is 
closer than the tie between a mother and her child. 
They two shall be one flesh. And when a woman 
chooses a man to be her husband she chooses to 
merge her life into his, and proper love and rever- 
ence and loyalty to him demand that she shall 
keep faithfully to his interests. 

If a wife truly reverences her husband she will 
desire to show that esteem and love in practical 
ways and will seek to make herself essential to his 
success. One of the greatest paragraphs in litera- 



256 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



ture is that description in tlie last ckapter of 
Proverbs which portrays a good woman. It is said 
to be the words of King Lemuel, giving expression 
to the prophecy that his mother taught him. She 
who would be a noble wife in any age may well 
study this portrayal, for while its incidents may 
have local references it reveals for all time the true 
spirit of the wife : ^ Who can find a virtuous wom- 
an ? for her price is far above rubies. The heart 
of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he 
shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good 
and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh 
wool, and ilax, and worketh willingly with her 
hands. She is like the merchants' ships ; she bring- 
eth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is 
yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a 
portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, 
and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she 
planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with 
strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiv- 
eth that her merchandise is good : her candle goeth 
not out by night. She layeth her hands to the 
spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She 
stretchetK out her hand to the poor; yea, she 
reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not 
afraid of the snow for her household : for all her 
lionseholrl aro clothed with scarlet. She rnaketh 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 257 

herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk 
and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, 
when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She 
maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth 
girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honor are 
her clothing ; and she shall rejoice in time to come. 
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her 
tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to 
the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread 
of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her 
blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou 
excellest them all. Favor is deceitful, and beauty 
is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she 
shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her 
hands; and let her own works praise her in the 
gates." 

If a wife truly reverences her husband she will 
live in that attitude toward him which in the 
very nature of the case must soothe and cheer 
rather than annoy and irritate him. There is 
something about the attitude of those who sincerely 
esteem us and honor us that makes it almost im- 
possible for us to be angry with them or to fail to 
consider what they say to us. I think that many 
wives have failed at this very point. A husband 
desires and needs to find in his wife that which will 
IT 



258 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



soothe and comfort him. Perhaps he has been 
working all day in the midst of men who ask no 
odds of him, who care nothing for him, and make 
him feel their hostile s]3irit. All day long he has 
stood on the defensive, and he returns to his home, 
whether conscious of it or not, with a real need for 
appreciation. He needs that somebody shall ap- 
proach him on the other side of his nature. All 
day long he has been made to feel how good-for- 
nothing he was, and how little he knew, and now 
he needs that some one shall come to him with 
esteem and love and with reverential kindness re- 
store his self-respect and build him up into strength 
again. But if when he comes home instead of find- 
ing this he finds fretfulness or scolding or critical 
accusation, it is the last straw which breaks the 
camel's back, and all chance for peace in that home 
disappears. 

I confess to a good deal of sympathy with the 
young wife who was called on by the parish visitor. 
The hu.sband was a stoker on the railroad, and the 
visitor urged her to be present on Sunday iat 
church. 

"Will you please walk in till I show you some- 
thing,'' was the woman's answer; and she con- 
ducted her visitor to the little kitchen where her 
husband sat by the fire. He had just come home 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 259 



for half an hour to have his tea^ and was watching 
the kettle with the most absorbing interest. He 
was, of course, in his working clothes, and his face 
and hands were of a deep, oily black, after the 
manner of stokers. 

"!Now, ma'am,'' said the woman, pointing to him, 
^^you see that there man. That's my husband, and 
I'm bound to do a part by him, ain't I ?" 

^^Surely," said the visitor, anxious to uphold the 
duties of matrimony. 

^'Very well, then. Would you like to know how 
I pass my Sundays ? A-washing of he !" 

That woman up to her light was a true wife. 
The same spirit in all circles of society would 
greatly increase domestic peace. 

If a wife reverences her husband she will care 
more for his good opinion and respect than for that 
of anyone else in the world. She will keep her best 
disposition, her sweetest good humor, her most sen- 
sitive spirit of appreciation, and let them all blos- 
som for the husband whom she reverences. The 
woman who does that will have little trouble to 
secure the loyal adherence of her husband. 

A country woman came once to William Hut^ 
ton, and told him that her husband behaved un- 
kindly to her, and sought other company, often 
passing his evenings away from home, which 



260 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

made lier feel very unliappy; and, knowing Mr. 
Untton to be a wise man, slie thought he might 
be able to tell her how she should manage to cure 
her husband. 

^The method is a simple one/' said he; ''but I 
have never known it to fail. Always meet your 
husband with a smile.'' 

The woman expressed her thanks, drojDped a 
courtesy, and went away. A few months afterward 
she waited on Mr. Hutton with a couple of fine 
fowls, which she begged him to accept. She told 
him, with tears of joy and gratitude glistening in 
her eyes, that she had followed his advice, and her 
husband was cured. He no longer sought the com- 
pany of others, but treated her with constant love 
and kindness. 

What a woman sows in her husband's heart she 
is pretty sure to reap again. J. Stuart Blackie, 
the great Scotchman, was scarcely ever seen for 
many years without a plaid, which fact came to be 
famous. He once told Donald Macleod how he 
came to wear it : ''When I was a poor man, and my 
wdfe and I had our difficulties, she one day drew 
my attention to the threadbare character of my 
coat, and asked me to order a new one. I told her 
I could not afford it just then, when she went, like 
a noble woman, and put her own plaid shawl on my 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO WIVES 



261 



shoulder S; and I have worn a plaid ever since in 
memory of her loving deed.'' 

A woman who truly loves and reverences her 
husband will seek to live a life that will help him to 
the noblest living. She cannot do this without 
being a Christian. Only the love of God in a man's 
heart can help him to be the right kind of a hus- 
band, and only the love of God in the heart of a 
woman can help her to be the right kind of a wife. 
Marriage, with true love, where hearts are united 
together in tender fellowship, each conscious of the 
other's love for God and thinking of the home on 
earth as a preparation for the home in heaven, is 
the sweetest thing in the world. But it requires 
the divine love and the divine hope to give the true 
glory to the bond between the husband and wife. 



262 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XXIII 
What the Bible Says to Fathers 

Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath : but bring 
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. — 
Ephesians vi, 4. 

The laboring oar in the family life is in the 
hands of the father^ and he can neither throw it 
away nor transfer it to anybody else without great 
loss to himself and to his family. A man has no 
right to assume the position as the head of the 
family and then undertake to evade the responsi- 
bilities that belong to that position. In my judg- 
ment the frivolity of fathers, the lack of a keen 
sense of responsibility for the education and train- 
ing of children, is one of the most dangerous and 
threatening points in modern civilization. Mount 
Pelee, pouring out its deadly gases and its choking 
ashes upon the towns and villages that cluster about 
its feet, spreading terror and danger and death 
everywhere, is like careless, frivolous, ungodly 
parents in a family. Many a time have I seen 
belched forth from a father's lips and example the 
destructive lava and the volcanic gases that have 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO FATHERS 263 

utterly desolated and blighted the smiling, fruitful 
promise of the children growing up about his feet. 

It is no small thing for a man to take upon him- 
self the obligation of fatherhood, and the man who 
does it lightly, without feeling its responsibility, is 
either lacking in brains or in heart, or both. The 
Bible everywhere puts the emphasis on the father 
as the responsible head of the family, and the one 
on whom rests the burden of duty in the nurture 
and training of children. You pick up the Bible 
anywhere, in the Old Testament or in the 'New, 
and you will see this fact brought out clearly. 
Speaking of Abraham, the Almighty said : ^'I know 
Abraham, that he will command his children and 
his household after him; and they shall keep the 
way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." 

And after the conquest of the promised land, 
when Joshua set up the monuments in Gilgal, he 
said : ^ When your children shall ask their fathers 
in time to come, saying. What mean these stones ? 
Then ye shall say unto them" — ^thus and thus. 
Joshua put on the father the duty of instructing 
the children in the history of their people. It was 
not to be turned over even to tlie mother or the 
schoolmaster or the priest. And so Paul in our 
text holds the father responsible for the bringing 
up of the children. I lay the emphasis here be- 



264 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

cause I am profoundly convinced tliat in our gen- 
eration fathers are shirking their duty in the con- 
trol and education and development of their chil- 
dren. The time was when the mother had scarcely 
anything to do with either the government or the 
education of the children of the family. But as 
time went on^ and the girls began to be educated as 
well as the boys, and under the gracious influence 
of Christianity the woman began to be treated as 
the man's equal and her position as a wife and a 
mother was improved so that she began to stand in 
her proper place by the side of the husband and 
father, then the father began to shirk and get out 
from under his end of the burden, until in tens of 
thousands of families the responsibility of bring- 
ing up children is thrown almost entirely on the 
mother's shoulders. In innumerable cases the 
mother is doing the whole work of the nurture of 
the children. The father seems to feel that if he 
contributes a liberal sum of money for their sup- 
port and pays the bills when they come in he has 
done all that could be expected of him. What an 
absurd idea of family life ! That is the way a man 
runs a horse farm or a cattle-breeding establish- 
ment ; an overseer manages it, and the owner foots 
the bills when they come in, and goes occasionally 
to look over the stock. He is proud if one of his 



.WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO FATHERS 265 

horses wins a race or one of his heifers takes a blue 
ribbon. Is not that very much like the way some 
fathers treat their families to-day ? They give all 
their time and energy to business. They pour 
their souls into that. They expect the family home 
to be kept up, and if one of their boys or girls win 
a prize they are proud. If, on the other hand, a 
boy or girl goes to the bad, they think the mother 
must have been careless in her discipline or over- 
sight. The paying of the bills of the household is 
the smallest part of a father's duty. I have seen 
many a family where the children would have had 
an infinitely better chance for a happy and success- 
ful career if they had been brought up in poverty, 
with a father's wise and thoughtful supervision, 
than to have lived in a fine house, surrounded by 
abundant luxury, with no strong hand to guide and 
control them. The ruin of families upon every side 
of us may be directly traced to the lack of father- 
hood. There is a nominal father, but the office is 
not occupied when it comes to the bringing up of 
the children with any personal magnetic touch of 
his upon them. 

The Bible is not lacking in examples of the ruin 
that comes to family life where a father fails to do 
his duty by his children. You take the case of Eli. 
Eli was one of those well-meaning, goody-goody 



266, THE (31EEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

sort of men who utterly ruined Ms children. He 
never set them a bad example so far as doing any 
sinful deeds were concerned, but he had no back- 
bone, and there was no grip in his fingers when it 
was necessary to lay a restraining hand upon his 
sons. The boys were full of life and vigor, and 
with a wise father's strong and positive control they 
would have grown up to be the pride of their father 
and the glory of the nation. Eli wanted them to 
be good, and no doubt he persuaded and entreated 
them; but he did not restrain them, and so they 
made themselves vile and grew up to be the plague 
and the curse of their country. Eli was responsi- 
ble, and God held him to that accountability. 

There never was a clearer illustration of the ruin 
that may come through the failure of a father to 
do his duty than in the case of David and Absalom. 
In the midst of his life David fell away into sin. 
It was just at the time when Absalom, a bright, 
beautiful, dashing boy with great animal spirits, 
gifted marvelously in personal beauty, was grow- 
ing up. The influence of his father's backsliding 
and evil example told on the career of Absalom 
and not only brought ruin to him, but no wound 
went so deep into David's heart as the wound made 
by Absalom, the son whom he had poisoned by his 
own example. IS^o picture of family life in all 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO FATHERS 267 

literature is sadder than that of David when he had 
been watching by the gate to learn the result of the 
battle, until at last the messengers came and told 
of the fate of his son. All the news of victory was 
as nothing to him. What was victory if it cost him 
the life of his son ? Absalom's later treachery and 
rebellion were all forgotten then. He remembered 
only the beautiful child, and perhaps the sting was 
in his soul that if he had only done his duty by that 
handsome youth the result would have been very 
different. So David climbs up the stairs with 
weary step, tears running down his cheeks, and his 
officers hear him saying over to himself as he goes, 
'^O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! 
would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my 
son, my son God pity the father who is getting 
ready for an experience like that ! ^ 

It is the duty of the father not only to hold him- 
self responsible for the general control and govern- 
ment of his family, but it is the direct duty of the 
father, as set forth in our text, to nurture child- 
hood and to see to the religious education of the 
children. I^o father can do this properly simply 
by seeing that they go to Sunday school or church. 
There is a great lack of religious education in the 
families of the people. It is the father's shame 
when the children grow up to be young men and 



268 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

young women without caring for the Bible and 
without proper instruction in religious duties. The 
best time to begin this is when children are very 
small. The first lessons and associations are the 
ones which are never forgotten. 

Some years ago a native Greenlander visited the 
IJnited States, but found the climate so hot for him 
here that he made up his mind to return home and 
took passage on a whaler that was going that way. 
But he died before he got back, and as he was dying 
he turned to the sailors who were around him and 
said, ^^Go on deck and see if you can see ice.'' Poor 
fellow ! When he was a baby the first thing he ever 
saw, after his father and mother, was ice. The 
very house he was bom in was made of ice. The 
window was a slab of ice. He was cradled in ice. 
The water that he drank was melted ice. The 
scenery about his home was ice. The mountains 
were of ice. The fields were filled with ice. When 
he became a man he had a sledge and twelve dogs 
that carried him fifty miles a day over ice. Many 
a day he stopped over a hole in the ice, hour after 
hour, ready to thrust his spear into the head of any 
seal that might appear. He had always been accus- 
tomed to see ice, and he knew that if his com- 
panions on the ship could see ice it would be 
evidence that he was near home. The thought of 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO FATHERS 269 



ice was the very last thought in his mind as it was 
the very first impression ever made there. The 
earliest impressions are the deepest. Those things 
which are instilled into the hearts of children en- 
dure forever and ever. So I say to you, fathers, 
while your children are small and their hearts 
young and tender and their minds fresh and not 
yet preoccupied is the time to possess their souls 
for Christ and righteousness. 

When a lady once told Archbishop Sharpe that 
she would not communicate religious instruction 
to her children until they had attained the years of 
discretion that shrewd old priest replied, ^^Madam, 
if you do not teach them the devil will 

Coleridge tells us that he had a friend named 
Thalwell who thought it very unfair to influence a 
child's mind by inculcating any opinions before it 
had come to years of discretion to choose for itself. 
By way of answer, Coleridge showed him his gar- 
den, and told him that it was a botanical garden. 

"How so said he. "It is covered with weeds." 

"O,'' replied Coleridge, "that is only because it 
has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. 
The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, 
and I thought it imfair in me to prejudice the soil 
toward roses and strawberries." 

This is a significant opening sentence in our 



270 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



text, this exiiortation to fathers that they do not 
provoke their children to wrath, lest they discour- 
age them, as Paul puts it in Colossians. This may 
be done in a number of ways. It is possible to have 
too much prohibition and not enough of positive 
inspiration in the life of a child. A father can say 
^ 'Don't" all the time, and if he never says ''Do," 
thus giving a proper outlet for the storage battery 
of power that is in every healthy child, the result 
is that the child will not only be provoked to anger 
but will be hardened and discouraged. Many chil- 
dren who are considered bad children are only 
made to appear such because they are not shown 
any proper outlet for the force that is in them. 
Many a child is like a young, imdisciplined horse 
which is not vicious but only untrained, and all it 
needs is an open road, a quiet firm hand on the 
reins, and a chance to go. Let it go without the 
reins and it will wreck everything ; but with a good 
driver and a good bit it will do good service. So it 
is a kindly, firm control, with a chance to really 
grow and do things, rather than an everlasting 
"Don't," which encourages childhood to do its best. 

Children are often provoked to wrath and be- 
come discouraged because they do not feel that the 
government over them is sympathetic and kind in 
its control. If the child feels that the father is a 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO FATHEES 271 

tyrant and governs him just because he can, and 
says he can do this or do that without any feeling or 
care for the child's happiness, then he will become 
angry and sullen and hard. But the father can do 
the very same things^ and if he shows the child by 
his spirit and by his conversation with him that he 
is all the time seeking the child's good he will be 
able to hold the loyalty and devotion which he 
would otherwise lose. It is an awful thing to make 
a child feel that the father is a tyrant. To a little 
child a father stands in the place of God. And 
many a man after he has grown up has thought of 
God as a tyrant and has felt hard and sullen be- 
cause his father gave him that impression in his 
childhood. 

Children are often permanently turned away 
from goodness because the father is unyielding and 
unforgiving and holds a wrong done by the child 
for a long time before the child's mind. If God 
dealt with us that way how soon we would be dis- 
couraged. When a wrong has been confessed and 
has had either its punishment or its forgiveness 
and the matter is settled, then it ought to be settled. 
God says when he forgives that it is like that which 
a man flings over his back and drops in the depths 
of the sea, so that it never shall be seen again. A 
father ought to follow that example in dealing with 



272 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



his children. Christ gives ns one great illustra- 
tion of what fatherhood ought to be in the forgive- 
ness of faults. He tells us the story of the young 
fellow who had gone out from the old home, and 
had gone away from his father, and had wasted his 
substance with riotous living. He associated with 
a bad lot of people. He was in a circle that sneered 
at love and goodness. But after his fortune was 
squandered these sinful and reckless associates left 
him to his own misery. He had a hard time of it, 
and after a while his thoughts went back to his 
father. I^ow if the father had been a hard, unfor- 
giving, tyrannical sort of a man he would never 
have gone home. But as the boy thought of his 
father's goodness and gracious generosity, he said : 
^^I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and 
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.'' 
That is the way he thought it would be. You see 
he had been so long away from home, and had 
associated with such a selfish lot of folks, that it 
had dimmed his sight as to the goodness of his 
father. He did not dare to believe that even his 
father, good as he was, would so completely forgive 
him as to give him the old place of a son. Yet this 
is how it turned out ; ^'But when he was yet a great 



WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO FATHERS 273 

way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, 
and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, . . . 
and said to his servants. Bring forth the best robe, 
and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and 
shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, 
and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry : for this 
my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, 
and is found. And they began to be merry." 

That is the kind of fathers Christian men are 
to be. 

18 



274 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Is Your God Asleep? 

Perad venture he sleepeth, and must be awaked.— 
1 Kings xviii, 27. 

Thou art near, O Lord. — Psalm cxix, 151. 

A schooner was once discovered in the Pacific 
Ocean, dismantled in the storm and drifting help- 
lessly on the waves. The mainmast had been 
broken off close to the deck and it was dragging 
after. Lashed to the iron davits astern, and 
directly over the wheel that whirled back and forth 
as the waves washed under the rndder, was the 
body of the mate, dressed in oilskins. A weather- 
beaten sou'wester still remained on his head. He 
had lashed himself to one of the davits, and there 
the body hung in the lashings. The left hand 
trailed over the vessel's rail, and on its third finger 
was a plain gold ring. His lifeless hand had 
dropped from the wheel, and though the dead man 
was still at his post the vessel drifted where it 
pleased. A ship is in a hard plight with a dead 
man at the helm. But think of a world, a universe, 
with a dead God at the helm who does not hear or 



IS YOUE GOD ASLEEP ? 



275 



answer. That is the fearful fate to which some 
people would condemn us. 

The picture suggested by this first text is very 
striking. It is on Mount Carmel, where Elijah has 
challenged the prophets of Baal to a test. Each is 
to build his altar, and put his offerings upon it, and 
call upon the name of his god, and the god who 
answers by fire, he is to be regarded as the true 
God. So the four hundred and fifty prophets of 
Baal, the idol, killed a bullock and laid it on the 
altar made of wood. They did this early in the 
morning, and then they all began to pray to Baal to 
send fire to consume the offering. From morning 
even till noon their loud prayers rang out, saying, 
^^O Baal, hear us !" But their prayers were not 
answered, and there was no sign of fire about their 
altar. At noon Elijah came out, and said mock- 
ingly to them, "Cry aloud : for he is a god ; either 
he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a jour- 
ney, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be 
awaked." This drove them wild with anger. Yet 
in spite of all their cries and efforts no answer came 
to their prayers. 

But when Elijah called upon the God who made 
heaven and earth to bear witness to his prophet 
there was immediate response ; and in our second 
text the psalmist says, "Thou art near, 0 Lord." 



276 THE GEEAT POETKAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Many people are living to-day as though they 
thought God to be asleep. But he is awake and 
very near to us. Paul said on Mars' Hill that he is 
"not far from every one of us." 

Two Oxford scholars made awhile ago a very 
interesting discovery in Egypt. On the edge of the 
Libyan desert, a hundred and twenty miles south 
of Cairo, are the ruins of an old Eoman town which 
was one of the chief centers of early Christianity 
in Egypt. In the rubbish heaps of this town, amid 
large quantities of papyrus, they have found one 
fragment, six inches long and less than four inches 
wide, which contains eight "Sayings of Our Lord." 
It is know that some of the early disciples made 
collections of sentences which fell from the lips of 
Jesus, and this has every appearance of being such 
a collection. Its unique importance arises from 
the fact that scholars believe that this manuscript 
must be of as early a date as the year of our Lord 
200, and is therefore a more ancient document than 
any extant manuscripts of the gospels. Several of 
these sayings are familiar, as they already exist in 
the gospels. Two of them, however, are quite new 
and very striking, and have already become the 
subject of much speculation and discussion. One 
of them is, "Kaise the stone and thou shalt find me, 
cleave the wood and there am I." What an im- 



IS YOUE GOD ASLEEP ? 



277 



pressive statement of the immanence of Christ 
throughout the realm of nature, the great truth of 
which pantheism is the perversion and which finds 
such definite and loftj statements in the writings 
of PauL God is ever near to us in nature and in 
our dailv lives. 

God is near to us in times of darkness and 
trouble. When the disciples were on the lake at 
night and the storm came up, and in their fright 
they thought they were utterly separated from 
Jesus and were to be drowned alone in the dark- 
ness, he came to them through the storm, and when 
the storm was at its height they saw his form and 
heard his comforting words, "It is I; be not 
afraid." Though they did not know it, he was 
near to them. And so he is near us when we need 
him. 

A mother who was stopping at a summer hotel 
in the mountains, with her little child, came out 
on to the veranda as a thunderstorm was coming 
up, and ran up and down the piazza exclaiming: 
"Where is Freddie ? Where is Freddie ? He is so 
terribly frightened at a thunderstorm. I don't 
know what he will do without me !" 

A few moments afterward the boy came running 
up the walk, almost breathless, his face plainly 
showing the great fear that was in his heart. 



278 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

^^O mother," lie exclaimed, "I was so frightened, 
I ran just as fast as ever I could to get to you." 

The mother sat down and took the frightened 
child into her arms. She allayed his fear and 
quieted him until his head rested calmly on her 
loving heart. That is what God means when he 
says to you, "As one whom his mother comforteth, 
so will I comfort you." Do not for a moment think 
that God is so far away that you cannot run to him 
when the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes in 
your daily life. He is a God near at hand, and he 
will comfort you with all the tenderness of a 
mother. 

God is near to those who are true to him, even to 
old age. Wlien Bishop ITedding was a very old 
man he was entertained one Sunday evening in a 
house where he sat in the window to listen to the 
sermon, not feeling ahle to go to the service. Two 
young men came in to see him afterward and found 
him sobbing as if his heart would break. With some 
alarm they asked him if he was sick or in trouble. 
His reply was, "[N'o, no, my brethren ; you can do 
nothing for me." 

His tears fell fast, and his breast seemed to 
heave in its agitations more and more, until they 
became alarmed and excitedly asked, "What is 
amiss, bishop ?" 



IS YOUE GOD ASLEEP ? 



2Y9 



At last he said, "Dear brethren, I have been sit- 
ting here listening to that brother while he was 
preaching. I could hear every word, and I have 
been examining my poor old heart to see whether it 
loved the Lord Jesns as much now as it did when 
I was of your age, my boys." 

As he spoke his lips quivered. 

Finally one of the young men gently asked: 
"And what, bishop, is the result of the hour's in- 
vestigation ?" 

"0 my child, the result is written in the Word. 
I can say with Peter, 'Thou knowest all tilings; 
thou knowest that I love thee !' " 

Then the young men knew that the old bishop's 
tears were tears of joy. And what glorious wealth 
was his in that nearness to God ! 

God is ever near when his people share the little 
that they have of comfort or blessing with another 
in still greater need. You remember that Bible 
story of how the prophet came to the widow who 
had got to the bottom of her bag of meal and her 
cruse of oil. She had scraped out what was left, 
and in her despair was going to bake it in one last 
little cake, and then there seemed nothing to do but 
that she should fold her darling boy in her arms 
and they would die together. And then came 
Elijah, the prophet, hungry and starving. And in- 



280 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

stead of eating tlie cake herself she baked it for 
him. And after that the cruse of oil never failed 
and the bag of meal never was empty until the days 
of famine were gone. That old miracle has been 
realized over and over again in the lives of multi- 
tudes of men and women ever since. God is always 
near to the man that shares with his neighbor. 
Jesus declares that when we share with our brother, 
however poor or humble or lowly he may be, we 
shall find him there in that man ; in fact, we shall 
be ministering to him, and he will receive it and 
honor it and reward it as though we were minister- 
ing to him in his own person. My friend, if you 
want to find God go forth trying to help your 
brother man with a loving heart, and you shall find 
him. 

God is ever near when we sin, and we cannot 
hide ourselves from him. Adam and Eve met God 
with perfect freedom and gladness until they had 
sinned, and then they tried to hide. But God came 
calling in the garden — calling them by name until 
they answered. Cain slew his brother and thought 
no one was looking on, and no doubt imagined that 
it would never be known how Abel came to his 
death. But when God came to Cain and asked him 
where his brother was, and Cain sullenly answered, 
with a sneer, "Am I my brother's keeper?'' God 



IS YOUE GOD ASLEEP ? 



281 



said to him, with sad sternness, ^'Thy brother's 
blood crieth unto me from the ground." 

It is not that God watches us like a detective 
spying upon us that he may find a flaw in us, but 
love always sees the mar and the blemish in the one 
beloved before anyone else sees it. 'No one can 
smell the taint of liquor on a man's breath as quick 
as the mother or the wife who would die if need be 
to save him from disgrace. 

But God is not only near us when we sin, he is 
also near us when we repent of our sin and seek 
forgiveness. Christ saw the unrest and the desire 
in the eyes of Zacchseus, and went home with him 
to his house that he might be near him to help him 
and save him. Blind Bartimseus had a longing to 
see the Saviour, and erelong Jesus walked that 
way, and when the blind man knew it he cried out, 
"Thou Son of David, have mercy on me!" And 
Jesus stopped his journey and told them to bring 
the blind man to him, and he opened his eyes and 
forgave his sins and took him with him as one of 
his friends. 

Just because you are sinful and have great need 
of Christ he will come near to you now if with 
earnest heart and sincere repentance and faith you 
call upon his name. 



282 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XXY 

A Story of the Sheepfolds 

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoul- 
ders, rejoicing. — Luke xv, 5. 

One of the most beautiful figures in the Bible, 
used to represent to us God's thought and feeling 
about us, is that of the shepherd and his care over 
his flock. And this beautiful story which Jesus 
tells us ought never to be read by any man or 
woman without making sin seem black and terrible 
and arousing all the possible gratitude and love of 
the heart. What a striking and beautiful picture 
it is! The sheep have just been brought to the 
fold in the evening, and one by one as they go in 
through the little narrow stone door the shepherd 
counts them, and he makes only ninety and nine 
when there ought to be a hundred. His heart is 
anxious, and to the dismay of the sheep he has 
them pass out again, and recounts them, but he is 
still one short. He is now thoroughly convinced 
that somewhere during the day's wanderings a 
sheep has been lost ; but still as they go back into 
the fold he counts them again for the third time, 
and now he knows for a certainty that one sheep is 



A STORY OF THE SHEEPFOLDS 283 

lost, and as he looks them over he remembers which 
one it is. It is a little lamb with a black spot on 
the foreleg and a scar across the side of its face. 
When it was very young it fell over the edge of 
the precipice one day, getting not a very bad fall, 
but it cut through the skin on the face, and the 
blood ran, and he carried it home that day in his 
plaid and kept it all night on his bed, and the next 
morning it was ready to go again with its mother. 
And now the little stumbler is lost. It may have 
fallen over the precipice again and be lying man- 
gled at the bottom of the glen, or it may have been 
behind a great stone when the rest of the flock 
moved on, and so not have discovered their absence 
until they were out of sight, and may be wandering 
helpless now, in danger not only of stumbling to 
death but in danger of some prowling wolf that 
may come upon it with sudden destruction. With- 
out waiting further the shepherd goes out to seek 
for it. He does not stop to get his supper. It will 
soon be too dark to search safely, and he must go 
now. All through the sunset and the twilight and 
the gathering darkness the shepherd goes, seeking 
for that lost lamb, crying aloud to attract its atten- 
tion. Carefully he picks his way, as it gets darker, 
back over the mountain track they have traversed 
during the day, and at last he hears a wolf howl. 



284 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

He shudders. He thinks he hears another sound, 
and his heart almost stands still as he bends his 
head to listen. It is the bleat of the lamb. Almost 
recklessly he runs now, and arrives jnst in time to 
brandish his rod in the ejes of the startled wolf 
and seize the lost lamb. Throwing it over his 
shoulder he turns rejoicing on the tramp backward 
to the sheepfold. "Not a word of anger has he for 
the sheep that has caused him all the trouble. 'No, 
it never seemed so precious to him as now, when 
he has come so near to losing it. 

In doing this he acted just like a shepherd. A 
traveler describes a scene which he once saw that 
strongly reminded him of this parable. One day 
with a friend and their guides he was making his 
way with ice ax and alpenstock down the Aletsch 
glacier, when he observed a flock of sheep following 
their shepherd over the intricate windings of the 
crevasses, and so passing from the little pastures 
on one side of the glacier to the pastures on the 
other side. The flock had numbered two hundred, 
all told. But on the way one sheep had been 
lost. The shepherd appealed to the travelers to 
know if they had seen it. Fortunately one of the 
party had a field glass. With its aid they discov- 
ered the lost sheep far up amid a tangle of bnish- 
wood on the rocky mountain side. It was beauti- 



A STOEY OF THE SHEEPFOLDS 285 

ful to see how the shepherd without a word left 
his hundred and ninety and nine sheep on the 
glacier waste, knowing they would stand there per- 
fectly still and safe, and went clambering back 
after the lost sheep until he found it. 

There is a story of St. Francis that he once saw a 
mountaineer in the Alps risk his life to save a lost 
sheep, and was so struck with it that he cried out 
aloud, God, if such was the earnestness of this 
shepherd' in seeking for a mean animal which had 
probably been frozen on the glacier, how is it that 
I am so indifferent in seeking my sheep 

How our hearts ought to be touched when we 
turn to the application of this story to ourselves. 
A writer in the Bible says, ^^All we like sheep have 
gone astray." How many of us remember with 
very tender hearts that when we were wandering 
away in the darkness and danger the shepherd-love 
of God followed after us until he found us and 
brought us back. In a great convention of Chris- 
tian workers a distinguished bishop began his ad- 
dress by telling the story of a youth who belonged 
to a Bible class, but at last became careless and 
worldly and discontinued his attendance at the 
class. One Sunday morning the class met, but this 
young boy's place was empty, and the leader looked 
'for the familiar face in vain. He could not be con- 



286 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

tent to conduct the Bible study as usual while he 
was ignorant of the condition and circumstances 
of the missing scholar. ^Triends/' he said, "please 
read, sing, and pray. My work is to seek and find 
a stray sheep/' and he started off on the quest. At 
this point the tears came into the eyes of the bishop, 
and with beaming face and trembling voice he 
continued: "The stray sheep is before you. My 
teacher found me, and I could not resist his plead- 
ing. I could not continue to wander and stray 
while I was sought so tenderly." O, how many 
sheep dear to the heart of God would be saved from 
wandering to their ruin if every pastor and Sun- 
day school teacher had thus the shepherd's tender 
love and perseverance to seek after the lost until 
it is found. 

l^either men nor sheep become lost intentionally. 
'No sheep in its willfulness ever said to itself, "I 
will slip away from the flock and get lost so that I 
may be devoured by the wolves neither does any 
young man or young woman say, "I will wander 
away from the path of right and safety ; I will put 
myself in the way of becoming a drunkard or a 
libertine or a person full of selfishness and evil." 
You cannot imagine anyone doing that. People 
are not ruined that way. But they stray aside; 
they wander off and are lost. 



A STORY OF THE SHEEPFOLDS 28f 



Are you lost ? If your sins have not been for- 
given, if you are living without prayer and with- 
out communion with your Saviour, then you are 
lost. And though the wolf of sin may not yet have 
attacked you in a way to seriously alarm you, you 
stand in all the deadly peril of one who is without 
God and without hope in the world. Christ is 
seeking to find you. He is searching for you now. 
I am here and many of these Christians are here 
with no other thought or desire than to be what 
Uncle John Vassar used to call himself, "God's 
shepherd dogs," in bringing you back to the fold. 
I only wish I knew how to tell you how tenderly 
the Lord is seeking after you, and how lovingly he 
will take you in his arms and carry you to safety 
if you w^ill allow yourself to be found of him now. 

One week evening in one of our large cities an 
old woman, very poor and very lame, heard the 
church bell ring for service. She had not been to 
church before since childhood, but took it into her 
head to go this once. The minister preached on 
the parable of the lost sheep, and to this poor old 
woman his words conveyed real and joyful news. 
She sat drinking it in as a traveler drinks at a well 
in the desert, to save his very life. "What," said 
she to herseK, "be I then a sinner ? Yes, surely I 
be. What, be I then just like the lost sheep ? Aye, 



288 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

for sure, I'm just like that. And be tliere a shep- 
herd searching about for me ? Will he find me ? 
Be I TTorth his while ? A Saviour for a poor thing 
like me ! 'Tis wonderful loving.'' These were her 
self-communions as she hobbled back on her 
crutches to the little dark cellar which she called 
home. A short time afterward the clergyman re- 
ceived a message that the poor old woman was 
dying and earnestly desired to see him. The mo- 
ment he made his appearance she exclaimed : "That 
is the man who told me about the lost sheep. I 
want to know more about it." So he sat down, 
saying, "I will gladly tell you more about it. I 
will tell you also about the sheep that was foimd." 
And as the minister went on telling and illus- 
trating the beautiful story the poor, confused, and 
trembling soul was found of the loving Shepherd of 
Calvary, and with happy face she exclaimed, 
"Fomid! Found! Found!" She did not live very 
long after this interview, and she passed away with 
those precious words on her dying lips : "Found I 
Found! Found!" 

The shepherd, if he be a true shepherd, will not 
stay away from his search because the sheep that is 
lost is little or young, or is old or thin or weak. It 
is one of his flock that is lost, and he is a shepherd 
and will save it. So the Lord Jesus Christ comes 



A STORY OF THE SHEEPFOLDS 289 

out from the heart of God to seek after the lost 
ones, wherever they are and whoever they are. 
Among those whom Jesus sought when he was on 
earth were J oseph and lN"icodemus and the Koman 
centurion among the rich and the powerful, but he 
sought also among the fishermen who were poor 
and rude and unlettered. He sought among the 
politicians and the hated taxgatherers for Zacchseus 
and Matthew. He sought after lost women who 
were in shame and disgrace. He sought after 
wicked and thieving men, and the very last thing 
he did before he gave up his life on the cross was 
to bring home a poor thief, forgiven and redeemed. 
If there be one here who has failed so many times 
in the effort to do right as to have lost hope, I want 
you to take comfort and be assured that it is not in 
your wisdom or your strength to find the way 
home ; but you are to depend upon the wisdom and 
strength of the Good Shepherd. 'No matter how 
often you have tried and failed, the Shepherd will 
not cast you off because of that. It is said that 
Lady Huntingdon once approached George White- 
field with a party of ladies and said to him : "These 
ladies have been preferring a very heavy charge 
against you. They say that in your sermon last 
night you made use of this expression : ^So ready is 
Christ to receive sinners who come to him that he 
19 



290 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

is willing to receive the devil's castaways.' " Mr. 
Whitefield pleaded guilty to the charge, and told 
them this story. Said he: ^^A wretched woman 
came to me this morning and said : ^Sir, I was pass- 
ing the door of your chapel, and, hearing the voice 
of some one preaching, I did what I have never 
been in the habit of doing, I went in ! And one 
of the first things I heard you say was that Jesus 
would receive willingly the devil's castaways. Sir, 
I have been serving the devil for many years, and 
am so worn out in his service that I may with truth 
be called one of the devil's castaways. Do you think 
that Jesus would receive me V I," said Mr. White- 
field, ^^assured her that there was not a doubt of it, 
if she was willing to go to him." Lady Hunting- 
don was so impressed with the story that she hunted 
up the woman, and found that it had indeed been 
a most glorious conversion, and she ever afterward 
lived in happy communion with the flock of God. 

But, after all, the sheep will have something to 
do about its rescue, even when the shepherd has 
found it. I can imagine a sheep being so silly as 
to leap over the precipice, or flee from the shep- 
herd into the very jaws of the wolf, and certainly 
we are constantly seeing men and women who flee 
from the loving search for their salvation. It is 
possible to sin against God's love and refuse to be 



A STOEY OF THE SHEEPFOLDS 291 



saved. But, 0, the folly of it, and the pity of it ! 
Some of you have been the cause of many prayers, 
and perhaps even now you know of some one who 
is praying for you, and yet you do not yield. 
Would you like to have them stop praying ? Would 
you be satisfied to feel that there was nobody on 
earth who was trying to save you from your lost 
condition and bring you home to heaven ? I shall 
never forget a young man who came to me one day 
and, bursting into tears, exclaimed, "My mother is 
dead! My mother is dead! And who will pray 
for me now V His mother had been praying for 
him for years, and he had hardened his heart 
against it; but now that she was dead his heart 
broke, and before the grass had grown green over 
her grave her prayers were answered. 

Bishop i^inde, who went home to heaven so 
lately, among the last things that he did wrote a 
little story of Dr. Albert S. Hunt when he was a 
professor in Wesleyan University at Middletown, 
Conn. Professor Hunt was a great soul-winner, 
and there was one young man in the school in 
whom he was greatly interested. One day he dis- 
missed his classes all day and shut himself up in 
his room and spent the day in agonizing appeals 
to God for the conversion of this young man. In 
the evening he sought his friend and with a tender- 



292 THE GREAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

ness born of earnest concern for his soul begged 
bim to surrender himself to Christ, The young 
man, instead of yielding to his persuasions, seemed 
more unconcerned and frivolous than usual. With 
hope well-nigh broken, Hunt exclaimed, ^^Othman, 
I believe I shall have to give you up There was 
passionate despair in the exclamation. The coun- 
tenance of the young man instantly changed. With 
a strange seriousness of voice and look he cried out, 
"0, don't give me up !" And that was the dawn- 
ing of a new life to him. He yielded himself to 
be carried back on the shepherd's shoulders. 

Thank God, you can come now. This very hour 
you may settle the question for all eternity. 

Once at Hamilton Camp Meeting, a few miles 
out of Boston, a man was urged to go to the altar 
and seek the forgiveness of his sins. 

He replied : "I have no time. I am an engineer 
and must go and pull my train out in ten minutes." 

"0, that is plenty of time to get converted," said 
the other. "Come along." 

He did, and was gloriously converted, and pulled 
his train out on time. 

0 brother, sister, the heavenly Shepherd is call- 
ing. In God's name, surrender yourself to him 
now! 



THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MOTH-EATEN 293 



CHAPTEK XXVI 
The People Who Aee Moth-Eaten 
The moth shall eat them up. — Isaiah 1, 9. 

This is a unique, concise, and picturesque de- 
scription of how some people in olden time came 
to their destruction. It was a sort of contemptu- 
ous way of describing the insignificant character 
of their enmity and their opposition. They were 
not to be taken into account as enemies who needed 
to be fought with sword and battle^ax or with spear 
or javelin. 'Noy the moths would take care of them. 
This was another way of saying that there were 
certain insidious causes at work among themselves, 
in their own hearts and lives — certain habits and 
conditions as quiet and still and noiseless as a moth 
— that would yet eat their hearts out, and they 
would fall to pieces like a splendid garment which 
has been silently cut and scissored by the moths. 

Some sins we are constantly warned against be- 
cause they work largely in the open. They are 
like the paw of the lion ; they leave their mark, and 
every man who sees the slain knows who the enemy 
was. If a herd of elephants passes through a rice 



294 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

field, in those lands where these huge beasts 
abound, no one needs to be told who has passed that 
way ; but the little dwarfs in the heart of the great 
forest set their tiny stabbing spears among the 
leaves, and the wounded man may not know of the 
deadly poison that has entered his blood until it is 
too late for help. So there are some sins that are 
blatant; they are recognized at once. The man 
who is tempted by them knows readily that he is 
tempted of the devil, and that he is in danger of 
the loss of his soul ; but other sins are like the hid- 
den stab with its poisoned covering that we step on 
unseen. There are sins like the malaria that floats 
off from stagnant water ; sins like the moth millers, 
white, soft, noiseless, and delicate, that lay their 
eggs in the secret places of the imagination; they 
are to be mused about and brooded over in many a 
quiet hour until they hatch out moral moths, silent 
and noiseless like their mother, but with teeth as 
sharp and vicious as Satan's, which will cut the 
holy fabric of character and leave it useless as a 
moth-eaten garment. 

Let us look at some of these moths. One of them 
is indolence. Everything that God has made in 
this world is for use and service. When a thing 
will not serve it begins to decay and becomes a 
nuisance to itself and a danger to its neighbors. 



THE PEOPLE WHO AEE MOTH-EATEIT 295 

There are no exceptions to this great truth. You 
may see it illustrated everywhere. Take an old 
dwelling house that no longer shelters the life of a 
family. How quick the bats find it out and make 
their nests in the cellar. The wasps will have a 
nest somewhere, and all sorts of bugs and ugly and 
loathsome little beasts will find their home in hid- 
den corners until that indolent house becomes a 
breeding place of loathsomeness and danger. An 
indolent garden given over to weeds and neglect 
goes to ruin the same way. Around its walls is a 
favorite nesting place for snakes, and every man 
accustomed to it, who goes about an old neglected 
farmhouse or garden, watches warily for snakes 
that lie in wait with deadly fang to resent the ap- 
proach of the intruder. 

These are fair illustrations of what comes to pass 
in an idle, indolent life. Man was made for work, 
for exercise, for service; and when he ceases to 
serve and is given over to indolence the moths begin 
to work on him. The old proverb, ^^An idle mind 
is the devil's workshop,'' or the other one, ^^Satan 
finds mischief for idle hands to do," are both true. 
And yet many get into habits of indolence without 
feeling that they are sinners. This is peculiarly 
true of indolence of the mind. Once reading and 
serious thoughtfulness is broken up for a time by 



296 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

business or pleasure, and one gets out of the habit 
of doing a daily stipend of good faithful reading 
or of holding the mind to honest, straightforward 
thinking on the important themes of life, he is in 
danger of intellectual indolence. Little by little 
one ceases to read and ceases to meditate and think 
with any decisive, earnest purpose. The mind be- 
comes moth-eaten and sluggish and useless ; and yet 
such a sinner, who has so grievously sinned against 
God and his own soul, scarcely recognizes that he 
has sinned. 

Do not forget that an indolent mind in youth 
and middle age means terrible punishment in old 
age. A distinguished bishop presiding at a Con- 
ference of colored ministers in the South had his 
fancy taken by a fine-looking man sitting in the 
audience, and asked the secretary of the Confer- 
ence about him. The secretary spoke rather con- 
temptuously of the man, and the bishop said, "You 
surely do not understand who I mean. I mean 
that fine-looking, baldheaded man on the middle 
aisle." The reply was, O yes, bishop, that's the 
man I mean, too. The trouble is, his head is bald 
inside as well as outside." 

^ow, it is a terrible thing to be baldheaded on 
the inside when you come to get old. Thorwaldsen, 
the sculptor, made a bas-relief in which a feeble old 



THE PEOrLE WHO ARE MOTH-EATEN 297 

man is holding out impotent hands to try to catch 
the little mocking doves that are flying away from 
him. Youth at its poorest has its dovecote well filled 
with things that interest the mind and heart ; but 
if you are going on to old age without finding your 
dovecote empty you must conquer the indolence of 
mind and heart which tempts you to idleness and 
inaction. 

A bright writer commenting on the attempt to 
make provision for old age, wisely says that the 
best kind of provision and the most needful is too 
often neglected. An old age that comes to a person 
who has always lived in externals is inevitably sad. 
The withered beauty and the aged fop, who still 
pose and make believe, are melancholy as a death's- 
head. Painted old age is a horrible sight, and yet 
more pathetic than horrible. It speaks of vacuity 
and emptiness. How passionately these people 
have sought the elixir of life, and yet of how little 
value any part of life has been to them ! 

Old age is supremely sad to those who have 
not learned to think, to find entertainment and 
reinvigoration in the powers of the intellect. And 
nothing will give new impulse to one's thoughts 
along the lines that make for peace and comfort to 
the soul so much as to stir into activity your mind 
in the service of God and of his children. The 



298 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

people who rouse themselves out of indolence to 
think thoughts and realize them in helpfulness to 
others save themselves from being moth-eaten as 
the years grow on. It was a very old man who said 
as he was nearing the end on earth that he was 
"sorry to go out of the world leaving so much 
misery in it." Though more than fourscore years 
had passed over his head; the world to him had not 
lost its charm, because he had spent his life making 
sad hearts happy and in helping to lessen the 
misery which he found. 

Then there is the moth of self-indulgence. I do 
not mean that gross self-indulgence of strong drink 
which leads to drunkenness, which everybody can 
see and which rings a bell before it to attract atten- 
tion to the victim's shame. ^N'either do I mean that 
yielding to unholy lusts which binds the soul to 
deadly immorality. I mean those soft and gentle 
and insidious indulgences which most people seem 
to regard as permissible, and which are more or 
less temptations to all of us. They are not glaring ; 
they are not regarded as specially sinful, and yet 
multitudes are destroyed by them. Strong men 
who are masters of the world in many respects have 
been themselves mastered by very little moths that 
have silently and secretly cut the threads of their 
strength. isTapoleon Bonaparte, the greatest single 



THE PEOPLE WHO AEE MOTH-EATEIS" 299 

human force of his day, was but a little past middle 
age when he died at St. Helena. The doctor who 
knew him best said his disease was brought about 
by excessive snuffing. Think of it ! The hero of 
Austerlitz, the man who could make all Europe 
tremble by one emphatic stamp of his foot, killed 
at the prime of his life by a snuffbox ! And there 
are men all around us, and women, too, who are 
being slain, and who will die a living death, taking 
ten or fifteen years to die, during which time the 
body will be full of aches and pains because of self- 
indulgence in eating and drinking or irregularities 
of sleeping which are cutting all the strength out 
of life's fabric. 

The worst thing about self-indulgence is not, 
however, that it destroys the garment of the body ; 
it also feeds on the garment of the soul. It comes 
to be the souFs master. Little habits, soft and 
silken as the moth miller, grow up in us, until they 
master us and control us and make it impossible 
for us to do the self-sacrificing, courageous work 
for God and men which we ought to do. Jesus 
Christ is our model. He pleased not himself. He 
came not to be ministered to, but to be a minister 
to others ; and we must be on the alert lest we be 
destroyed by the moth of self-indulgence. 

There is another moth, I think not often spoken 



300 THE GEEAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

of, which we might call self-pity. It is a species 
of self-indulgence, but of such a different type from 
what is commonly regarded under that name that 
it is perhaps well to consider it alone. Robert Louis 
Stevenson, in one of his fascinating books of travel, 
tells of the marvelous impression produced upon 
his mind by listening to the wail of the Miserere 
in a Continental cathedral. ^^I take it," he said, 
"to be the composition of an atheist." Stevenson 
suggests in this judgment an important truth that 
the deliberate rehearsal of all the miseries and 
agonies of men must inevitably cultivate in them 
the feeling of self-pity, with an underlying insinu- 
ation that they have been hardly used and that life 
is a dismal matter at its best. 

^ow this self-pity destroys multitudes of souls. 
Robert Louis Stevenson, of all men, had the right 
to speak on this subject. Smitten down with a 
deadly disease just at the beginning of his career, 
he resolutely refused to pity himself or to give up, 
and fought his fight, traveling from land to land, 
maintaining always his cheerfulness and his faith, 
and during those years of illness producing work 
of great service and helpfulness to the world. And 
yet the greatest thing he produced was his own per- 
sonality. He showed the whole world a young man 
slowly wasting away in body and yet always cheer- 



THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MOTH-EATEN 301 

fill, happy, courageous, doing splendid work, never 
pitying himself, going toward the future with a 
^^moming face/' 

Beware of this little moth that comes to you in 
sickness or misfortune in the time of adversity. It 
is like the mosquitoes that come off the swamps ; it 
is specially born of adverse circumstances, and its 
tendency is to make you morbid, to make you feel 
that God has not used you well, and there is not 
nmch use for you to struggle against your fate. 
Listen to that tempter and it will cut your throat. 
There is every reason for you to struggle, and there 
is every victory before you, if you struggle with 
honest heart and simple reliance upon God. 

There is a cape at the southern point of Africa 
which the old sailors used to call the Cape of 
Storms. It had a bad name. They had to fight 
their way around it through high waves and fierce 
tempests for many days before they entered the 
peaceful seas which lay beyond. But after a while 
there came a jolly tar, a brave and hopeful man, 
who looked at it on the other side, and who, when 
he had mastered the storms and adverse winds, and 
rounded the cape, called it the Cape of Good Hope. 
All through the stormy days he did not take most 
account of the water through which he was passing, 
but thought most of the sea toward which he was 



302 THE GREAT POETRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

sailing, and the world joined with him. So the 
Cape of Storms was forgotten and the Cape of 
Good Hope it is for all time. My friend, you 
at whose heart that devilish little moth, self-pity, 
is gnawing, I beg of you to cast it out. You are 
not to be pitied. You are the child of God. Jesus 
Christ died to redeem you, and he ever lives to in- 
tercede for you. Pick up your courage. "For all 
things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or 
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things 
present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye 
are Christ's ; and Christ is God's." 

There is one other little moth, very insidious 
and very deadly, which I must speak of for a mo- 
ment. It is the moth of carelessness or neglect. It 
is strange that people should congratulate them- 
selves that somehow they are less sinners to simply 
neglect to do their duty than to deliberately refuse 
to do it, when the result is exactly the same. If a 
man neglects to eat the effect on his body is just as 
bad as if he refuses to eat. If a man is overboard, 
drowning, and I neglect to throw him the lifeline, 
he will drown just the same as if I had refused to 
do it. There are many people who were brought 
up in Christian homes, and who have all their 
lives been to a great extent in touch with Chris- 
tian influences, who are in great danger and peril 



a^HE PEOPLE WHO AEE MOTH-EATI2K 303 

of going down to endless night because of that little 
deadly moth of neglect which is destroying for 
them the garment of salvation. You never said 
you would not be a Christian. Indeed, you expect 
sometime to be a Christian ; but you have neglected 
it through all these years until the habit of neglect 
has cut deep into the very fabric of your soul. It 
becomes easier every day that you thus sin against 
God. I call you now to action! "How shall we 
escape, if we neglect so great salvation ?" 



304 THE GKEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XXVII 

David and Loi^gfellow on the Meai^in^g of 
Life 

The great poets and the noble artists see won- 
drous things that others do not behold. A lady, 
looking at one of Turner's splendid paintings rep- 
resenting the sunset, said, "I never saw that to 
which the artist quietly replied, "ITo, but don't you 
wish you could 

IsTot only do the poets see truth that is either hid- 
den or vague to others, but they have a way of por- 
traying it which makes it clear and vivid to the 
eyes of the mind. The next thing to being a poet 
is the ability to appreciate him and to seize upon 
the vision which he paints for us in rare and chosen 
words. 

David and Longfellow were great singers. 
David's greatest song is the one we call the Shep- 
herd Psalm. While I would not say that Long- 
fellow's "Psalm of Life" was his greatest poem, it 
is perhaps the most popular, and has been of the 
most inspiration and comfort to the world. Each 



ON THE MEANING OF LIFE 



305 



of these poems teaches many lessons not found in 
the other ; but together they hold two or three great 
lessons from which we ought to find comfort and 
inspiration. 

The first thought which suggests itself to me is 
that both to David and Longfellow life was not 
a drift without meaning, but was an orderly prog- 
ress, full of purpose. David thinks of man as a 
part of a great flock. The hillside was before him, 
and there were his sheep which he had led with 
patience and care across the stream, up the trail 
around the edge of the precipice, carefully going 
through every little green pasture that would give 
comfort and refreshment to the flock, and watching 
lovingly that no danger should come to any one of 
them. They were not out for a picnic, going any 
which way. The shepherd knew where he was lead- 
ing them, and all the day was planned and full of 
purpose. And so, as he sings about it, taking it as 
an emblem of God's care, he says : 

"The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
He leadeth me beside the still waters. 
He restoreth my soul." 

Longfellow's note is very much more spirited 
than this. He is not thinking of man as a shepherd 
20 



306 THE GEE AT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

thinks of a flock, but there is the same teaching that 
human life is an intense, real thing and is to be 
taken seriously. Man is in a procession, he is ad- 
vancing; he must gTow, he must act with all his 
might, for great possibilities are within his reach. 
Our poet sings: 

"Tell me not, in mournful numbers. 

Life is but an empty dream! 
For the soul is dead that slumbers, 

And things are not what they seem. 

"Life is real! Life is earnest! 

And the grave is not its goal; 
Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

Was not spoken of the soul. 

"Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 

Is our destined end or way; 
But to act that each to-morrow 

Find us farther than to-day." 

Both of our poets see God with clear eyes as the 
great saving background of human life. Man may 
hope, he may have confidence, he may go forward 
with composure, he may do his work with a trust- 
ing heart because God is watching over him and, 
if he will yield himself to him, will take hold of 
his hand and guide him safely through all the 
journey. Whether we are rich or poor, whether 



ON THE MEA]S:iI^G OF LIFE 307 



we are feeble or strong, whether we are famous or 
obscure — all these are only incidents of the jour- 
ney and have little to do with the great end toward 
which we are traveling. Old age may come upon 
us. The house in which we live may become broken 
and inadequate to the storms. The shadows of the 
valley may shut in around us. But the stars will 
still shine in the sky overhead, and the God in 
whose bosom the stars are jewels will come down 
and walk with us in the shadows as a shepherd 
walks with his sheep. Death will lead to life, and 
the evening shadows will only be a promise and a 
pledge of the great sunrise toward which we are 
traveling. The note of faith and of absolute assur- 
ance with which these poets sing is very comfort- 
ing. David says : 

"He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his 
name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, 

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; 
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." 

Longfellow, too, is not unmindful that man's 
march must mean the grave. But he also catches 
hope in the thought of God and feels the blood 
bound within him with inspiration and courage. 
He sings : 



308 THE GREAT POKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

"Art is long, and Time is fleeting, 
And our hearts, though stout and brave. 

Still, like muffled drums, are heating 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

"In the world's broad field of battle, 

In the bivouac of Life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle! 

Be a hero in the strife!" 

In both of these poems there is sounded a note 
that is of the greatest importance as a message for 
our own time. The message is that we should live 
in the present in the sense that we should do our 
whole duty to-day and get all the comfort and bless- 
ing that to-day holds for us rather than thrust aside 
both duties and enjoyments of the nobler sort into 
some far-off imaginary period which may never 
come to us, or, if it does come, will find us unfitted 
for them. Many a man has slaved all his life to 
become rich, imagining that after a while, when he 
has plenty of money, he will build him a splendid 
library, buy all the great books, fill a gallery with 
beautiful pictures, and settle down for years to 
enjoy them. But such a man, who has been what 
the world calls successful, and has made his money 
and bought his library and his books and his pic- 
tures, has found that there has gone from him for- 
ever all power to appreciate and enjoy his rare 



OlSr THE MEAI^ING OF LIFE 



309 



treasures. An hour a day spent in reading and in 
the enjoyment of art during all these years would 
not only have refreshed and enriched his soul for 
the later years, but would have been like a cup of 
cold water every day of his life. 

The saddest tragedy of this sort is in family life. 
A man thinks that the time will come when he can 
make up to his wife and children and friends for 
all the days when he has not had time to show them 
his love and affection. Alas, when the time comes 
the children have grown up, and like birds that fly 
out from the nest they are gone from him. The 
wife has silenced her affection so long that if he 
were disposed to show any now it would be awk- 
ward to them both. The friends who might have 
been the richest treasures of his life have dropped 
away into mere acquaintanceship. My friends, we 
cannot afford to fail in seizing the new, fresh joys 
and blessings which God means to give us through 
the love and fellowship of every day. Take them 
now. They are not for to-morrow. The to-morrow 
will take care of itself. The Lord's mercies are 
"new every morning." 

And in that highest realm of the spirit there 
could be no message more important. Is it not true 
that many are living in a very unsatisfactory grade 
of spiritual life who expect sometime to do better ? 



310 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Just now jou are so busy, and yon have so many 
other tilings to occupy your mind, that you excuse 
yourself from doing your full duty as a member of 
the Church of God. Occasionally you read the 
story of some sweet saint, completely surrendered 
to the Spirit of God, and you are both humbled and 
fascinated by it. You are ashamed that your own 
life comes so far short of the goodness and the rap- 
ture seen in the saint, and at the same time it 
charms you because deep down in your soul there 
is something that rises up and says, ^^It is possible 
for me, by the grace of God, the fellowship of Jesus 
Christ, and the living presence of the Holy Spirit 
to live a life as beautiful and glorious as that." 
But you do not live that way. Your life goes on, 
humdrum and selfish and fretful and so unsatis- 
factory to yourseK. The secret of all the trouble is 
that you are putting off for the future what you 
ought to do here and now. All the mercy of God is 
for to-day. All the bread of life, all the rich 
spiritual delicacies that were ever fed to any soul, 
are for you here and now. Open your heart and 
consecrate your life to receive eveiwthing that 
heaven has to give to human souls. That you may 
be sure I am right about this message, listen again 
to these great lines of David : 



OIT THE MEANING OF LIFE 



311 



"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of 

mine enemies: 
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 

of my life: 

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." 

The same note — doing the work of to-day that 
both for ourselves and our neighbor we may make 
the present a fit godfather for the future — sounds 
with a still more live and energetic touch from the 
harp of Longfellow: 

"Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! 

Let the dead Past bury its dead! 
Act — act in the living Present! 

Heart within, and God o'erhead! 

"Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime, 

And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time; 

"Footprints, that perhaps another, 
Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother. 
Seeing, shall take heart again. 

"Let us, then, be up and doing, 

With a heart for any fate; 
Still achieving, still pursuing. 

Learn to labor and to wait." 



312 THE GREAT POKTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEK XXVIII 

The Easter Experiences of Mary Magdalene 

She . . . saith unto him, Sir. — John xx, 15. (Rev. Ver.) 
She . . . saith unto him . . . Master. — John xx, 16. 
(Rev. Ver.) 

Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples, I 
have seen the Lord. — John xx, 18. (Rev. Ver.) 

The earthquake had already shaken open the 
sepulcher in J oseph's garden, the angel had rolled 
away the stone from the mouth of the tomb which 
had been holding the body of Jesus, and the guard 
of soldiers set to keep Christ in his grave had fled 
away frightened into the city. Then it was that 
Mary Magdalene, while it was yet dark, before the 
dawn had broken into day, came to the sepulcher, 
and when she saw that the stone was taken away 
she was greatly excited and ran as fast as she could 
to where John and Peter were staying and ex- 
claimed to them, "They have taken away the Lord 
out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they 
have laid him." It took no second appeal to attract 
the attention of these two men. They hurried 
away, leaving the worn-out woman to come behind. 
As they proceeded they became more aroused, and 



MAEY MAGDALENE 



313 



both of them ran on their way to the sepnlcher. 
John outran Peter, and came first to the grave. He 
did not enter it, however, but paused at the mouth 
of the open tomb, a sort of solemn timidity taking 
possession of him. But when Peter came up he 
went immediately into the grave and examined 
everything, and afterward John followed him, and 
became thoroughly convinced that Jesus was in- 
deed risen from the dead. 

Peter and John, after thoroughly examining the 
place, went away thoughtfully to their home to talk 
the matter over together, but Mary did not go with 
them. Her heart clung to the spot where she had 
last seen the body of Jesus. She stood weeping 
outside the tomb. How many women have stood 
outside the tomb since, feeling that it was the 
most sacred place on earth to them, and have 
thus entered into that fellowship of tears with 
Mary Magdalene. 

Finally, still weeping, Mary stooped down and 
looked into the tomb again, and was amazed to 
see two angels clothed in shining white, the one 
sitting at the head and the other at the feet where 
the body of Jesus had lain. And as she gazed upon 
them one of them spoke to her and said, ^^Woman, 
why weepest thou ?" And she said unto them, ^^Be- 
cause they have taken away my Lord, and I know 



314 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OE THE BIBLE 

not where tliey have laid him.'' Just then some- 
thing attracted her attention and she turned her- 
self back and saw Jesus standing, but did not at 
first recognize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her^ 
repeating the question of the angels, ^'Woman, why 
weepest thou ? TMiom seekest thou ?" And Mary, 
supposing he was the man who had charge of the 
garden in which was the sepulcher, said, ^'Sir, if 
thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou 
hast laid him, and I will take him away.'' 

Something touched the heart of Jesus and caused 
him to reveal himself to her. It may have been the 
despairing attitude, or the look of utter loneliness 
and loss in her face, or those tender words showing 
the depth of her devotion for him — that sort of 
hopeless love which made her long to find the poor 
dead body, as if that were all there was left of her 
Lord ; or it may have been also a feeling of loss in 
Christ's own heart, when she who had been accus- 
tomed to meet him so gratefully and tenderly now 
addressed him in those formal tones and in that 
cold word, ^'Sir." How often our address to Christ 
is so cold and formal and ceremonious that Christ 
must feel that there is no loving appreciation or 
tender recognition in it! For whatever reason, 
Christ determined to relieve this suffering heart 
of its loneliness and depression, and with, I have 



MAEY MAGDALEE^E 



315 



no doubt, a smile of infinite compassion and love, 
and a tone that was electric, going to her very heart, 
Jesus spoke to her one word ; but that word was her 
own name and uttered with a voice and with a look 
that she could never misunderstand. 

"Mary," said Jesus, and at that she turned her- 
self, with an exclamation of astonishment, and 
cried out, "Kabboni!'' This title existed in the 
Jewish schools under a threefold form: Rab, mas- 
ter, the lowest degree of honor ; Eabbi, my master, 
of higher dignity ; Rabboni, my great master, the 
most honorable of all, publicly given, we are told, 
to only seven persons, all of the school of Hillel 
and of great eminence. So we can easily picture 
the scene as Mary excitedly throws up her hands 
and turning away from the tomb starts toward the 
Lord as though she would fall at his feet and em- 
brace them, and cries out in an exclamation of re- 
lief and love, "My great Master!" His recent 
death, the strange experiences of the last days, the 
mystery and the awe that surroimded the occasion, 
the angels she had just seen, and the fact that she 
had but just spoken to Christ and not recognized 
him, the confusion of her mind as to what this won- 
derful resurrection could mean — all this explains 
why even now she does not use a tenderer word in 
addressing Jesus. But the great longing of her 



316 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



heart is in that sentence, and in the attitude, as 
she throws herself down to embrace the feet of the 
Saviour. 

At first glance it seems very strange to us that 
Christ should have met that offered embrace with a 
seemingly cold refusal. He had not met her so 
when she had poured the ointment on his head and 
had washed his feet with her tears and wiped them 
with the hairs of her head. There had been words 
of sweetest comfort and blessing then, and he had 
defended her right to love him and minister to him 
before those hard critical eyes which had been 
fastened on her in contemptuous gaze, and before 
all at the dinner table had borne testimony to her 
forgiveness and had spoken of the depth of her love 
and devotion in tender, sympathetic words that had 
been to her bruised heart like showers of rain to a 
withered, thirsty plant. But now, when her weep- 
ing for him has led him to reveal himself and she 
falls on her knees to embrace his feet — the very 
feet she had covered with tears and kisses that day 
of the feast — Christ is turning her away and say- 
ing, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended 
unto the Eather : but go unto my brethren, and say 
to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, 
and my God and your Grod." 

But cold as it seems at first glance, as we study 



MAEY MAGDALENE 



317 



do we not see its wisdom and its tenderness as well ? 
Christ is saying to Mary Magdalene, ^^There will 
be time enough to embrace me, but let us not forget 
now those poor, wounded hearts yonder among my 
disciples and your friends. They are just as 
anxious as you are and they do not know yet that 
I am risen. They do not understand, and I will 
make you my messenger. Go and tell them that 
the great God in heaven is not only my Father but 
yours and theirs, and comfort their hearts with the 
certainty that I have come off victorious over death 
and the grave." And Mary seems to have under- 
stood, for she hurries away to the disciples. And I 
want you to take notice that when she comes to 
them she uses a different term in speaking about 
Jesus. She no longer talks about ^^the Master," 
but it is now "the Lord." With glowing, exalted 
face, and an air of one who has been in heaven, she 
comes in among them and says, "1 have seen the 
Lord !" Then she proceeds to give them at length 
and in detail the message of Christ to them. By 
sending Mary on this errand of mercy to his dis- 
ciples Christ put the crown on self-denying service 
for others. And there is in it the assurance for us 
that it is often more acceptable to the heart of 
Christ for us to be carrying comfort and good cheer 
to those who are perplexed and in trouble and need 



318 THE GREAT POKTEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

than to be embracing Christ on our knees in prayer 
in our own homes. 

And what a sweet message it was that Mary had 
to carry to the disciples — the recognition of their 
brotherhood with Christ, the assurance of their 
inner personal sonship to God. Christ had said 
many loving things to them before. Just a little 
while before his arrest he had assured them of his 
friendship and had said to them, ^^Ye are my 
friends, and if ye do whatsoever I command you. 
Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant 
knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called 
you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my 
Father I have made known unto you." But he 
comes closer than this to them now, and assures 
them that they are a part of his family, his Father 
is their Father, he is the Elder Brother who will 
look after their inheritance and care for their inter- 
ests in heaven, and he will intrust his interests on 
earth to them, and they shall stand in his place and 
represent him before men. They shall be known 
as the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. How 
sweet is the precious message that Mary carried 
that first Easter morning ! And it has not lost any 
of its sweetness through the lapse of the ages. It 
comes to us with just as much tenderness and sweet- 
ness as to them. How honored we are, how exalted, 



MARY MAGDALET^E 



31^ 



to have this privilege of brotherhood with Jesus 
Christ. Sometimes men go to a great deal of 
trouble to trace out their relationship to some lofty 
personage, and take great comfort out of the fact 
that though they have never accomplished any great 
thing themselves they are brother or sister to one 
who has so served the world as to receive great 
honor; they feel that the whole family have been 
honored in him. But the highest possible honor 
that can come in the way of relationship can come 
to the very poorest and most sinful man or woman 
in the world who will accept it. 

Mr. Spurgeon thinks it is a very significant fact 
that Christ should have made Mary Magdalene his 
message-bearer to the disciples on Easter morning, 
and should thus have so honored one who had been 
so great a sinner. Mary Magdalene had fallen 
very low. It was out of her that Christ cast seven 
devils. Luther used to say of her, "So many devils, 
so many sins." But, poor sinner though she had 
been, she now had become an honored saint. It 
was just like J esus to appear to her first. It was 
just like our divine Lord and in perfect harmony 
with his mission to the world that he should have 
given most honor to the one among his intimate 
friends who had had the most sin. When Jesus 
takes a sinner to himself, he does not hold him at 



320 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

arm's length. Ah, no; he takes him into his very 
heart and home, and so completely forgives all pre- 
vious sin that the very chief of sinners may become 
the most honored of his disciples and friends. 
Christ's treatment of Mary Magdalene should com- 
fort anyone who after years of indifference and sin 
has at last seen the folly and wickedness of such a 
life and has come full of repentance to the Saviour. 
Take the comfort of it to your soul. Though you 
will always regret that you stayed away from 
Christ so long, yet when you notice this Easter ten- 
derness of Jesus to Mary Magdalene you must feel 
that Christ will not hold up the past against you, 
but that if you are loving and true to him, as Mary 
was, he will be true to you, and will honor you, 
and give you his friendship, and own you in heaven 
forever. 

But I imagine that Mr. Spurgeon is right when 
he believes that Mary was selected to see Christ 
first for still another reason, and that was because 
she loved most. John loved Jesus much, but Mary 
loved him better ; John went away when he saw an 
empty sepulcher, but Mary stood without and wept. 
I-ove is keen-eyed. They say love is blind. In one 
sense it is true; but there never were such good 
eyes as those which love can carry in its head. Love 
will look after Jesus, and discover him where none 



MAEY MAGDALENE 321 

else can. If I set the unloving heart to read a 
chapter in the Bible it finds no Jesus there. But 
when the loving heart takes up that same chapter 
Christ's face is in every paragraph. A critical 
scholar may read a psalm and see no Messiah there, 
but an enthusiastic lover of Jesus will see glimpses 
of his glory everywhere. If you want to see J esus, 
and have daily sweet visions of his glory, you must 
love him. You must seek him as Mary did. ^^Seok 
him in the darkness and the twilight, seek him 
when the sun is risen, seek him at the tomb before 
the stone is rolled away; you must seek him 
when you behold that the stone is gone; you 
must seek him in the hollow tomb; you must 
seek him in the garden; you must seek him in 
life; you must seek him in death,'' and then, the 
more diligent you are in seeking, the more fre- 
quently Christ will manifest himself to you and 
the more keenly you will rejoice on finding him. 
Mary went forth bearing precious seeds ; she went 
forth weeping, but she returned to the disciples 
rejoicing, bringing her sheaves with her, for it 
was a rich and happy message she had for them. 
She had sown tears when she went out to seek her 
Lord, but all her tears were full of joy when she 
came back from her visit with him. And the hap- 
piness that Mary Magdalene knew is within the 
21 



322 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

reach of everyone who will love Christ as she did. 
Love is the crowning grace of the Christian life. 
Some one sings of Hope and Faith and Love, but 
gives the crown, as Paul did, to Love ; 

"A magic boat I saw afloat 

On the stormy sea of life; 
With pure, bright brow a child at the prow 

Steered through the raging strife. 

"And 'mid the storm that cherub form 

Sang clearly, ceasing never: 
'Bright Hope will sail through the fiercest gale 

On the sea of life forever I' 

•'The boat sped on; the day was gone; 

Dark clouds that child surrounded; 
Yet like a star it shone afar 

As it ever onward bounded. 

"And higher grown, its altered tone 

Sang firmly, faltering never: 
'Faith steers aright, through the blackest night. 

On the sea of life forever.' 

"Through perils dark that magic bark 

To Its heavenly haven bounded ; 
And the child, full grown, like an angel shone, 

Its brow with a crown surrounded. 

"And high it sung with seraph tongue, 

Its music ceasing never: 
'Love, shining bright, is the highest light 

On the sea of life forever.' " 



There seems to me to be something significant 



MARY MAGDALENE 



323 



in the three terms which Mary Magdalene used to 
designate Jesus on Easter morning. The three 
titles are, "Sir," "Master," "Lord." Those are the 
three steps by which Mary mounted to supreme 
gladness in the consciousness of Christ's resurrec- 
tion and to joyous confidence in her risen Lord. 
She called him "Sir" when he was simply a 
stranger to her. She thought he was the gardener 
or some one who might give her information about 
what she wanted to know. It was a title of formal 
ceremony. And are there not those on this Easter 
evening who stand in j ust that relation to Jesus ? 
You have heard about Christ all your life, you be- 
lieve in him as an historical character and as a 
great influential factor in the history of the world. 
But if you were to speak to him you could not 
honestly go beyond that term "Sir." As you stand 
to-day that would be the only appropriate title on 
your lips in addressing Jesus ; but how unsatisfac- 
tory that is! Such an attitude toward Jesus can 
never be any comfort in the great trials and sor- 
rows of life. You cannot stand beside the coffin of 
your dead loved ones and get any comfort from 
Jesus if you cannot come closer to him than that. 
Easter, after all, is a cold, meaningless festival to 
you unless Christ is known to you by some dearer 
name. 



324 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Then there was the next title, ^'Mj great Mas- 
ter." That was wrung from Mary's lips as she 
began to realize that it was Jesns and that he was 
risen from the dead. But in her confusion and 
perplexity the old tender relation which she had 
held toward him seemed impossible; he was Mas- 
ter, he was Eabbi, he was Teacher, he held destiny 
in his hands, she could not live without him, but 
her poor bruised heart had not gathered its con- 
fidence yet, so as to bring her into a still closer rela- 
tion to Christ than she had ever known. I imagine 
that some who hear me are in that position. You 
are trying to be Christians and you worship Christ, 
and yet you do not love him with the tenderness 
and devotion of which you are capable. 

But it is only a step from where you stand to 
joy and gladness unutterable, and I pray God that 
you may take that step now. As Mary walked 
away, hurrying homeward to tell the disciples the 
wonderful message Christ had given her, every- 
thing fell into its proper place. She was the 
daughter of God, she was the sister of Jesus Christ; 
Christ was risen from the dead, he would live for- 
ever; he was not only her Lord, but he was Lord 
over all, and he loved and honored her. And so it 
was with love and devotion indescribable that she 
came into the presence of her friends and said with 



MAEY MAGDALENE 



325 



a hushed voice, "I have seen the Lord." Ah, thank 
God, many another heart has come to Easter morn- 
ing with all the gloom and sorrow and heartbreak 
of sickness and death and the grave, mourning 
their loved ones as having been overcome and swal- 
lowed up by the grim monster, who have been able 
to say after the blessed visions of the Easter day, 
^'I have seen the Lord." 

Christ is still revealing himself to men and wom- 
en, and he longs to reveal himself to every one of 
us. You may be sure, if in your inmost heart at 
this moment you are seeking him sorrowing, that if 
you will listen in the hush of your soul you will 
hear him call your name, as he did that of Mary at 
the dawn of the first Easter day. ^^Behold, I stand 
at the door, and knock," says Jesus. That is to you, 
and if you will open the door of your heart the 
Easter glory may crown all the years to come. 



326 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTEE XXIX 

The Easter Earthquake 

There was a great earthquake: for the angel of the 
Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back 
the stone from the door, and sat upon it. — Matthew 
xxviii, 2. 

The trouble with the wrongdoer is that he never 
can get to the end of the wrong that it seems neces- 
sary to do in order to make good his case. If a 
man tells one lie he tells another to get out of it, 
and then only gets the deeper into the mire. His 
falsehoods draw him the deeper into the meshes of 
insecurity. So it is with all sin, with all insincer- 
ity, with all shams and frauds, and with all who 
place themselves out of harmony and out of touch 
with the right. The people who had followed Jesus 
with malignant hatred to his death are good illus- 
trations of this truth. They thought if they could 
get rid of Christ hy having him crucified they 
would be able to rest in peace. He had come into 
their midst a very disturbing factor. He had un- 
covered the hypocrisy and worthless formality of 
their lives. They hated him and thought if they 
could get him put to death judicially it would be 



THE EASTER EARTHQUAKE 



327 



the end of his disturbing prophecies and sermons, 
and everything would settle down into the old quiet 
again. But they no sooner had accomplished the 
death of Jesus on the cross than they were worried 
about another trouble, and that was a fear that he 
would not remain dead. The next day after the 
crucifixion and his burial in Joseph's tomb the 
chief priests and Pharisees went together to Pilate, 
and they said: ^^Sir, we remember that that de- 
ceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days 
I will rise again. Command therefore that the 
sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his 
disciples come by night, and steal him away, and 
say unto the people. He is risen from the dead : so 
the last error shall be worse than the first/' Pilate, 
who had permitted himself to be a party to the 
crucifixion of Christ against his own will and judg- 
ment in order to please these people, was not likely 
to draw back now and make difiiculties when, as he 
looked at it, the guard could make no difference 
to anybody. So he ordered for them the watch and 
said, ^^Go your way, make it as sure as ye can." 
So they went and did their work thoroughly. They 
set a seal on the stone, the seal of the Eoman gov- 
ernment, to break which was a crime punishable 
with death, and they set a strong guard to watch 
the sealed tomb day and night. 



328 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

What a strange situation ! It is not uncommon 
to leave watchers with a man to keep him from 
dying, to keep him alive, but in all the history of 
the race this is the only occasion on record where a 
guard was set about a man to keep him dead. And 
it failed. For the time passed by, and that long 
Saturday night slipped away at last, and as it be- 
gan to dawn toward the first day of the week a 
great earthquake shook the ground. The garden, 
the tomb, the guard, swayed to and fro like a 
drunken man. But that was not all ; if it had been, 
even if the stone had rolled from its place at the 
door, that stout Eoman guard would not have fled. 
Those old veteran soldiers from Gaul knew their 
business better than that. Besides, earthquakes 
were not an uncommon occurrence in that land. 
As Dr. Wright of Oberlin College says, Palestine 
is a region where earthquakes are easily gotten up. 
The whole valley of the Jordan and of the Dead 
Sea has been formed by a succession of earth- 
quakes. There was an earthquake on the day of 
Christ's crucifixion, an earthquake so great and 
important that in the earthquake catalogue com- 
piled by the British Association it is recorded as 
scientifically verified by evidence entirely inde- 
pendent of the Bible account. And yet we do not 
read that anyone deserted his post on that account. 



THE EASTER EARTHQUAKE 



329 



"Noj an earthquake alone would never have sent 
those soldiers fleeing into the city like skulking 
cowards. But in the midst of that earthquake 
shock something else happened far more signifi- 
cant. As they rocked to and fro they saw an angel 
descending from heaven, a mighty angel, with 
countenance like lightning and with raiment as 
white as snow, and it was for fear of him that the 
soldiers began to shake and fell like dead men, and 
became so thoroughly frightened that as soon as 
they could control themselves enough to run they 
fled into the city. There was not a man in all the 
land who would have dared to break that Roman 
seal, but the earthquake and the angel, both of 
them God's messengers, had no respect for the seal 
of Rome, and they burst it asunder, and the angel 
rolled back the stone from the sepulcher and sat 
on it. 

What message has the Easter earthquake for us 
on this new Easter morning? Eirst, it suggests 
the victory of light over darkness. There is no 
night so dark but the dawn will follow. The day 
is stronger than the night. The sun has not with- 
drawn from the world even in the night ; it is the 
earth that has rolled away from the day. But it 
will come back again, and the sunshine will be as 
warm and beautiful as ever. It was a long night to 



330 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

the disciples, and to all those friends of Jesus, for 
they scarcely dared to hope that there was anything 
better for them than a chance to bring spices to 
make fragrant his tomb. But the night ended, and 
the dawn came, and with it all the wonderful 
visions and glories of that first Easter day. Are 
any of us passing through the night ? Is the dark- 
ness about us ? — darkness so dense, it may be, that 
it reminds us of that Egj^ptian darkness that could 
be felt ? Even then let us sorrow not as others who 
have no hope, for we are living in the glorious days 
of the Easter Gospel, and He who brought the light 
to the first Easter morning has power to disperse 
the darkness that surrounds us and warm our 
hearts and inspire us with the light of Easter day. 

Again, nothing can stand against oui' Christ. 
He can use even earthquakes and angels to help 
along his victory. What a silly thing to think a 
few soldiers could hold Christ in the grave when 
he was able to summon to his aid the great volcanic 
forces of nature and to call legions of angels from 
the skies ! So let me encourage you to hope, though 
your happiness seem to have been buried in a grave 
of hewn stone and the great rock at the mouth is so 
cemented into its place and so sealed by all the 
force of human power that joy never can break out 
from its tomb and you can never open the way to it 



THE EASTEE EAETHQUAKE 331 



again. That is just what Peter and John and the 
Marys thought. But see how mistaken they were. 
True, no human power was able to help them, but 
they were not dependent upon human power. The 
very earth beneath and the invisible but none the 
less real power of the heavens above were working 
together to defeat the foes of God, and to comfort 
and console the friends of J esus Christ. And does 
not Paul say to us, ^^AU things work together for 
good to them that love God" ? Why, then, shall we 
spend sleepless nights and wet our pillows with 
hopeless tears ? — we, who are disciples of the resur- 
rection Lord, who are the followers of the risen 
Christ, who are the soldiers of Him who liveth and 
who is alive for evermore. It is unworthy of our 
Lord that we should go on in a gloomy way and not 
trust him to roll back the stone from our buried 
joys and bring to us the Easter glory which shall 
rightly cro^vn our lives. 

We ought to get courage out of this study. Dif- 
ficulties face some of us that we do not have the 
power in ourselves to overcome. Indeed, to some 
of us the difficulties seem to enlarge while our 
power to struggle seems to decrease. Perhaps your 
work looms up heavier and your strength does not 
seem equal to the task. The burden of responsi- 
bility and care seems to be growing with the years, 



332 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

^Yliile your strength becomes more imcertain. And 
so as you face the future you are saying to yourself, 
as the women said as they came on their loving mis- 
sion to the tomb where Jesus had been buried, 
^'Who shall roll us away the stone?" It seemed 
very real to them, that difficulty. They knew that 
they were not strong enough to do it themselves, 
and unless they could find some kind friend who 
would help them they would be unable to lay their 
sweet and fragrant gifts at the feet of their dead 
Lord. But how much better was God to them than 
all their fears ! AYhen they came to the place the 
great stone was already rolled away from the 
mouth of the sepulcher, and the angels who were 
sitting on it spoke to them in kindness and said, 
"YesLY not ye : for I know that ye seek Jesus, which 
was crucified. He is not here : for he is risen, as 
he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 
And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is 
risen from the dead ; and, behold, he goeth before 
you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him : Lo, I have 
told you. And they departed quickly from the 
sepulcher with fear and gTeat joy; and did run to 
bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell 
his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All 
hail." So all their fears proved groundless; that 
which they feared would be an insurmountable 



THE EASTEE EAETHQUAKE 333 



difficulty had already been rolled away by the com- 
bined efforts of the earthquake and the angel. And 
the very first words tliey had heard from the angels 
were words to quiet their fears. So some of us are 
facing difficulties which seem insurmountable to 
us, and are going along the way with bowed heads 
and foreboding hearts, when we ought to so trust 
God, and so believe in him and in his precious 
promises to care for us and to do the best for us, 
that we too shall see visions of angels sitting on 
the difficulties that we have dreaded. Many of the 
troubles we fear we shall never meet at all. They 
will recede and vanish into thin air as we draw near 
them. Other troubles through which we are pass- 
ing we shall look back upon, and with the sunshine 
falling on them we shall be delighted to see the 
clouds that have seemed so dreadful spanned by 
God's rainbow of promise. I am not claiming that 
sorrow is all vague and unreal. I am not claiming 
that life is not a struggle, and that there are not 
heavy burdens for human shoulders to carry. But 
what I do claim is that even Gethsemane and the 
cross and the tomb in the garden are not separated 
from God's watchful care and can be reached by 
God's earthquakes as well as by his angels, and that 
God is willing to use both, whenever it is necessary, 
to rescue and comfort his children. 



334: THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

We ought to get rid of our doubts and fears and 
all our gloom even if it takes an Easter earthquake 
to accomplish it. Some have come to Easter day 
bowed down with tender and sacred burdens be- 
cause they have buried their own loved ones in the 
grave. But Easter is a precious day for such grief. 
It speaks of the dawning after the night. It speaks 
of the angel with the face of lightning, and the 
white raiment. It speaks of a grave broken open 
and the dead brought back to life. It speaks of 
victory over death and of a life which is forever. 
The disciples never thought about Jesus as having 
any relation to that grave after Easter. Joseph's 
tomb was no longer a sacred Mecca to them. They 
looked on high for their ascended Lord. When 
Stephen, the first of the Christian martyrs, was 
being stoned to death, he kneeled do^vn and, looking 
up to heaven with glowing face, exclaimed, '^1 see 
Jesus.'' And so those of us whose loved ones, dear 
to our hearts beyond all the powder of words to tell, 
have fallen asleep in Jesus ought not to-day to seek 
the living among the dead. Let us look on high, 
for our loved ones are there. The little children 
whom we lost out of our arms in the midst of the 
sweet and happy prattle of their childhood, has not 
Christ said that their angels do always behold the 
face of the heavenly Father? They are not lost. 



THE EASTEE EAETHQUAKE 335 



Thej are not neglected. They are in the heart of 
heaven. They are in the presence of the King. 
The dear old saints, and the strong and happy 
youths who have gone before us — they, too, are 
glorified. They are in a land where there is no 
night, nor sickness, nor sighing; where God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes; where there 
shall be no hunger, nor thirst, nor weariness, nor 
winter storms ; but where they shall rejoice in im- 
mortal strength. And we are on the way. We are 
not marching toward nothingness. We are not 
staggering on to an endless sleep. We are not mak- 
ing a pilgrimage to the grave. We are the children 
of the risen Lord. We are on our way to heaven. 
God help us day by day to so enter into fellowship 
with our resurrected Saviour and King, to so live 
in the spirit of Christ and in the atmosphere of 
the heavenly life, that we shall feel within us the 
power of his resurrection and shall have the best 
evidence of all that Christ is risen from the dead 
in the fact that our own hearts are risen into the 
higher life. 

The psalmist said, "I will lift up mine eyes 
unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." 
It is to those hills to which we must look for 
our strength and help, and toward which we must 
look for rest. 



336 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

"Hemmed in by the eternal hills, 

Life's pathway through the valley lies, 
And bleak hillside and dizzy peak 

Shut out the brightness of the skies. 
A ceaseless throng this pathway tread, 

One watchword have they and one quest, 
To pass from out the toilsome vale 

To where above the hills is rest. 

"With faces to the setting sun, 

We all, perforce, must pass this way. 
For 'neath the tender morning skies. 

Or 'neath the noontide's fervid ray, 
Or when the sunset's crimson glow 

With glory crowns the mountain crest. 
Or quivering moonbeams lie athwart. 

The valley hath no place of rest. 

"To mossy bank, or leafy nook. 

Our wandering footsteps oft are led. 
But when we reach its welcome shade, 

A fairer one lies just ahead; 
Thus toiling ever, on and on, 

Hope slowly dying in the breast. 
We learn that always, just beyond 

Our grasp, lies happiness and rest. 

"Shortsighted plodders are we all. 

Our vision bounded by earth's hills; 
The shady path by mountain side. 

The flowery summit, too, hath ills. 
But far beyond the loftiest peak. 

Where heaven's blue blends with mountain crest, 
. Above earth's sordid cares and aims, 

In heaven, and there alone, is rest. 



THE EASTEB EARTHQUAKE 

"A moment's lifting of the veil, 

As lifts the mist from mountain dome, 
And from the 'palace of the King' 

Sweet voices woo the wanderers home; 
The faces of our loved and lost 

Are smiling welcome from the west, 
And down the valley, sweet and clear. 

Rings out, 'Above the hills is rest.' ** 

22 



338 THE GEE AT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XXX 

The Vision feom the Towee 

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the 
tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, 
and what I shall answer when I am reproved. — HabakkuTc 
ii, 1. 

It was a troublous time, dark with mystery and 
foreboding. Puzzling questions were in the air, 
and tbe prophet was at a loss to know the truth, 
and so he compares himself in his purpose to be 
like a sailor who climbs aloft into the rigging, who 
goes up to the lookout, and with a strong glass peers 
far away through the mist, scanning the wide waste 
of waves, looking for a sail or for the cloud of 
smoke that tells of a passing steamer, or, if he be 
far north, it may be scanning the horizon for the 
dangerous glint of an iceberg. He must know the 
truth, whatever it may be. Or he is like the as- 
tronomer who climbs up into the tower of the ob- 
servatory, and with his f arseeing telescope at hand 
sweeps the heavens in search of stars and worlds 
and moons and wandering comets. Wliile other 
men sleep he was never so wide-awake. Some new 



THE VISION" FEOM THE TOWER 339 

star, some traveling world, may come forth sud- 
denly, no one can tell when it will appear, and 
so he keeps his watch, peering into the great 
realm of silence and of light, watching for the 
message. 

The prophet had learned the secret of wisdom, 
a secret which every great searcher after knowledge 
has come to understand, that if you would he wise 
you must go alone into your tower and meditate 
and commune with God. God has messages to speak 
to us which he cannot convey to us in a crowd. 
Emerson said, "Let us he silent, that we may hear 
the whisper of the gods." When the Lord would 
communicate to Moses the mightiest code of laws 
the world has ever known — a code upon which 
every other code has heen founded, which has been 
the quarry from which legislatures and parliaments 
and congresses have dug the stone for all the laws 
which have stood the test of time — ^he took him up 
to the mountain top, away from the noise and jar- 
gon of men, that he might talk to him alone. When 
he would communicate a great message to Elijah, 
he led him afar off into a mountain cave, and con- 
versed with him there alone. Where God would 
reveal his vision to Ezekiel he said to him, "Arise, 
go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with 
thee.'' And when he would give John, tlie beloved 



340 THE GREAT PORTRAITS OF THE BIBLE 

disciple, the last great vision recorded in the book 
of Revelation, which v^as to close the Bible, he sent 
him off alone to the isle of Patmos. So if we 
would learn the great messages God has to give us 
we must go alone and stand upon our tower and 
watch and wait for the vision. 

God speaks to us through nature, in all seasons, 
but there is certainly no season when he speaks to 
us with so many voices and illustrates the message 
in so many colors as in the summer time. To the 
listening soul the summer world is vocal with the 
voice of God. The very earth on which we stand 
speaks to us. The great hills and tTie mountains 
are full of teaching. God thinks much of moun- 
tains. Go back through the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures, and you will see Mount Moriah, Mount Her- 
mon, Mount Sinai, Mount Ararat, and multitudes 
of other mountains which lift their rugged summits 
aloft in them. Jesus was fond of mountains. 
When he was to have his conversation with Moses 
and Elias, and be transfigured in the presence of 
liis disciples, he took them up into the quiet of the 
mountain top. 

The mountains stand for lofty ideals and high 
character. They ought to inspire us to the best 
things. A man will never rise above his ideals. A 
man who makes low plans, who in his dreams and 



THE VISION TEOM THE TOWEE 341 

longings for himself is satisfied with ordinary 
achievement, will never accomplish much. The 
man who lifts his eye upward, who dreams of great 
and noble and splendid things for himself to ac- 
complish, is the man who grows and expands as 
life goes on. 

The mountains ought to make men generous and 
large-hearted and broad-minded. The mountain 
does not live for itself alone, but it is trustee for 
the valley. It catches storms that do not reach the 
valley. Its secret chambers hold huge reservoirs 
of nourishment which bursts out in springs along 
its side and ooze down into the canyons and give 
refreshment to the low lands when the summer is 
hot and dry. Strong men and women ought to be 
like that. They ought to grapple with the storms 
and gather wealth and resource not for themselves 
alone, but that they may bring comfort and bless- 
ing to those who are weaker than themselves. 

The woods are God's preachers to us. They 
teach us how to struggle in close fellowship and 
competition. They make us to know that it is not 
good to be alone for life's real work ; that while our 
hours of meditation and communion are essential 
to us, the vision given us in such hours is intended 
to be realized in close human fellowship, where we 
touch shoulders with our fellow-men. It is not the 



342 THE GEEAT PORTEAITS OE THE BIBLE 



tree tliat grows alone out on the edge of the bluff 
and gets all the storms on its own head that is most 
beautiful or valuable. Such a tree is gTiarled and 
twisted. To get the most splendid trees jou must 
go into the forest where many of them gTow side by 
side. They have to keep straight because of the 
near presence of their neighbors. There is a great 
message in that for us. We are all helped by hav- 
ing a keen sense of responsibility toward our 
neighbors. I was once driving with the mayor of 
Boston in the outskirts of the town, when a little 
barefooted, ragged fellow, not more than five or six 
years old, looked up from making mud pies, and 
shouted, "Hello, Mr. Mayor The mayor turned 
to me with a quizzical smile, and said, "You see I 
have to keep pretty straight, for they all know me." 
The tree growing in the great forest has to keep 
pretty straight. If it does not it gets a poke in the 
ribs by the tree gTowing next to it. So it is in close 
fellowship, in close cooperation, thinking of our 
neighbors and of their needs as we do of our o^vn, 
that there is developed the strongest and truest 
manhood and womanhood. 

The forests, like the mountains, are full of the 
spirit of worship. He must be a strange man that 
can look at a great mountain or stand in the 
shadow of a giant tree without a feeling of rever- 



THE VISION FKOM THE TOWER 343 

ence and devotion to the God who reared it. I do 
not wonder Bryant sang : 

"The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 

To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 

And spread the roof above them — ere he framed 

The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 

The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, 

Amidst the cool silence, he knelt down 

And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 

And supplication." 

The hroolcs and the lakes are fnll of God's teach- 
ing. The brook is an emblem of all growth. How 
tiny at its beginning ! Often it is only a few drops 
oozing out through the wet soil and dropping over 
a stone. A few feet away other drops join it, and a 
little farther down still others, until it trickles over 
the rocks a steady rill. It is so large now that a 
bird can wet its bill in it and go away happy with 
song. Farther on it gathers other rills into its 
bosom, sings over the wedding, gurgles with de^ 
light, and makes quite a splash in its tumble over 
the bowlders. The flocks and herds may come now, 
and it will have plenty to refresh them all. A^nd 
still on it goes, ever giving away and yet ever 
growing. It keeps itself fresh and clean and pure 
by constant activity. It does not stop to stagnate ; 
it plunges on and on, ever alive, ever advanciiij^, 



344 THE GEEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

Let US learn the lesson of the brook. We must grow 
as the brook grows. We must not despise the day 
of small things. We, too, must not expect to be- 
come large by hoarding our water of life. We 
must be always giving if we would be always re- 
ceiving. We, too, must keep pure and wholesome 
by constant activity and progress. 

But the brook flows into the lake, and the lake 
is not without its message. Eor the lake, no matter 
how large it is, is only a reservoir on the way to the 
river and the sea. The lake is not stagnant ; there 
are many little brooks that flow into it, but it has 
its outlet forever tugging at its heart and carrying 
its streams away toward lower and larger lakes be- 
yond, till it reaches the river, and then on with 
the swirling current toward the great sea. What 
is the message of the lake ? The lake is a store- 
house ; it is a reservoir ; it stores the brook up and 
keeps it, to be drawn upon later. There are many 
epochs in life like that. You send a boy to school 
and to college and make him spend eight or ten 
years in study, not simply that you want to make 
him do the work, or that you may say afterward 
that he has an education, but that you may help 
him to store up a fund of information and knowl- 
edge and gather certain resources and power with- 
out which he will be at a disadvantage in later 



THE VISION FROM THE TOWER 346 

years. All the years afterward he will be drawing 
on that lake. If he does not it will become a stag- 
nant swamp and be of no value to him; but the 
more he draws on it the fresher and more abundant 
will be its waters in all the time to come. 

Our times of recreation and rest are like the lake. 
For a while we save up our vitality and force. We 
get a certain amount of energy and strength laid 
up to be drawn upon in the days that are to come. 
God's plan of the Sabbath is like that. God has 
planned that one day in seven shall be a lake, and 
that the year shall be a chain of lakes, fifty-two of 
them. All the week through, from Monday morn- 
ing, the brook runs fiercely, tumbling and splash- 
ing, ever onward. But if on tlie Sunday we let the 
brook gather into the little lake of Sabbath peace 
and quiet and rest, body and mind and soul are 
refreshed, and Monday morning the stream of 
energy starts away with a certain reservoir of 
nourishment behind it that will be felt through all 
the week. 

The pastures and fields have much to speak to 
us from God. The very stone walls and fences 
about them utter God's message. Has not God 
said in his book, Whoso breaketh an hedge, a ser- 
pent shall bite him" ? — which is one way of saying 
to us that we cannot break the law of God and 



346 THE GKEAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

escape the punishment which belongs to it. The 
great benevolent laws of God, which are absolutely 
essential to our health and to our safe and happy 
lives on earth, are like the hedge or the wall about 
the farm, and no man can lay his hand on them 
without peril. 

But go inside the field, and you will find a mes- 
sage. A man said to me the other day about a cer- 
tain farm which failed to produce profitable crops 
that ^'it had been skinned." That struck me as 
rather a strange expression to use about a farm. I 
knew what it was to skin a calf, or a lamb, or a 
deer, but how would you skin a farm ? He soon 
explained to me that it was a very easy thing to 
skin a farm. Keep raising crops on it without 
putting any fertilizer back on to the land, and very 
soon it will be so thoroughly skinned that it will 
no longer raise crops enough to pay for the farm- 
ing. It is just like that in our human lives. You 
can skin a character, you can skin a mind and 
heart, just as surely as you can a farm. Brains 
need fertilizing. Your affections and your spiritual 
nature need phosphate just as well as the soil tilled 
by the farmer. The man who does not read, who 
does not keep in touch with fresh, strong minds in 
magazines and books, will after a while cease to 
produce bright thoughts and stimulating ideas. So 



THE VISION FROM THE TOWEE 347 



the man who does not read his Bible, who does not 
pray to God, who does not seek to have fellowship 
with Jesns Christ in being helpful to his neighbor, 
will have his nature skinned of reverence, of wor- 
ship, and of devotion. 

The same is true in our social fellowships. The 
man who does not cultivate friendship, who ceases 
to speak sympathetic and loving words, who no 
longer gives gentle and tender caresses in his 
family, will soon have a heart that is skinned and 
bankrupt of the very power to love and to enjoy 
the sweetest fellowships of life. 

Let us not lose this gTeat lesson of the fields. 
Put much into yourself and you may take much 
out. Fertilize and cultivate your brain and it will 
be rich in invention, it will be fruitful in ideas, it 
will be a great garden of enjoyment for you in 
every time of misfortune, and especially in old age. 
Fertilize your heart. Irrigate it with the fresh, 
pure streams of noble and honorable affection. Let 
your heart go out in generous friendship; make 
much of your friends ; be unstinted in the love that 
pours forth among your family and kindred; al- 
ways remember that love and friendship are worth 
infinitely more than dollars and applause. Do this, 
and there will be no hour of sorrow so dark, there 
will be no time of drought so fierce, there will be 



348 THE GREAT POETEAITS OF THE BIBLE 

no old age so feeble but that these fellowships of 
the heart will gladden and cheer your soul. Culti- 
vate and fertilize your spiritual life. It is in you, 
this disposition to worship God, this reverence 
toward God, this longing for the immortal life, 
this going out of the soul after a knowledge that is 
greater than earth. Cultivate it ; keep your heart 
open toward God every day; give your love to 
Christ, who was rich in heaven and yet for our 
sakes became poor on earth. In all your friend- 
ships make your tenderest, most lasting friendship 
with Jesus Christ. So it shall be that this spiritual 
nature which you thus cultivate and fertilize will 
become fruitful, and the graces of the Spirit will 
grow there. How beautiful are those blossoms! 
Faith, hope, love, gentleness, patience, forbearance, 
kindness, goodness, meekness, truth, honesty, jus- 
tice — ^these are some of the flowers that grow in a 
spiritual nature thus fertilized by prayer and 
meditation and the humble doing from day to day 
of the work which God gives to us. 

The difficulty with a theme like this is that one 
is embarrassed with a wealth of resources. I have 
said nothing of the message of the sim that cometh 
forth out of his chamber in the morning like a 
bridegroom, and who exults like a strong man to 
run a race. I have said nothing about the message 



THE VISIOiT FEOM THE TOWEE 



349 



of the moon and the stars, that stud the midnight 
heavens with glory. I have said nothing of the 
message of the clouds which God is ever painting 
on the canvas of the sky ; nothing of the storms — 
those quiet, gentle storms that come in the night so 
softly they do not waken you and are gone in the 
morning before sunrise; nothing of the thunder- 
storms that seem to come out of the viewless air, 
that are rocked by the winds, that are split by the 
lightning, that carry the artillery of heaven with 
them and awe us and make us afraid by their 
majesty and their sublimity. I have said nothing 
of the rainbow that follows the storm, God's bow 
of promise in the clouds, nor of that marvelous in- 
spiration which so makes our blood to tingle which 
comes in the sunshine after rain. 

I have said nothing of the singers of nature, 
from the cricket and the katydid up through all 
the scale of music that makes the fields and the 
woods to resound — ^the twitter of the swallow ; the 
chirrup of the robin; the sweet concert of the 
thrushes; the shrill cry of the jay; the hoarse call 
of the crow ; the screech of the owl, and many an- 
other voice, some gentle and plaintive, and others 
harsh and guttural, but all of them full of teaching 
and suggestions to the alert ear, the sensitive mind, 
and the reverent heart. 



350 THE GREAT POETEAITS OE THE BIBLE 

I have said nothing of God's love of beauty, of 
the wealth of colors which he has given us every- 
where — the numerous greens of the springtime and 
early summer ; the various colors, all of them beau- 
tiful, of the summer fields, l^or have I spoken of 
the way he has twined vines around rough-barked 
trees, and covered unsightly rocks with moss ; nor 
of the flowers that grow not only in the pasture 
and meadow, but in every nook and cranny of 
canyon and cliff. The very shape and coloring of 
berries and of fruit, as well as insects and animals 
and birds, tell us that the beauty thirst of God is 
infinite. 

Surely we cannot stand in the tower these sum- 
mer days and look out upon God's beautiful world 
without praying the prayer of the mountaineer, 
sung to us by Lucy Larcom : 

"Gird me with tlie strength of thy steadfast hills, 

The speed of thy streams give me! 
In the spirit that calms, with the life that thrills, 

I would stand or run for thee. 
Let me be thy voice, or thy silent power, 

As the cataract, or the peak — 
An eternal thought, in my earthly hour. 

Of the living God to speak! 

"Clothe me in the rose-tints of thy skies, 

Upon morning summits laid! 
Robe me in the purple and gold that flies 

Through the shuttles of light and shade! 



THE VISION TEOM THE TOWER 351 

Let me rise and rejoice in thy smile aright. 

As mountains and forests do! 
Let me welcome thy twilight, and thy night, 

And wait for thy dawn anew. 

"Give me of the brook's faith, joyously sung 

Under clank of the icy chain! 
Give me of the patience that hides among 

The hilltops, in mist and rain! 
Lift me up from the clod, let me breathe thy breath! 

Thy beauty and strength give me! 
Let me lose both the name and the meaning of death, 

In the life that I share with thee!" 



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